THE KING’S EVIDENCE By Jim Redwine

Gavel Gamut by Judge Redwine

THE KING’S EVIDENCE

America’s judges still occasionally cite cases decided by the courts of Great Britain in colonial times. A maxim of old English law was, “The King is entitled to everyone’s evidence”. In other words, individuals had but scant claims to privacy from the government. Perhaps we have gone full circle.

With the confluence of technology and terrorism Americans appear willing to accept, or are resigned, to government intrusion into every aspect of our lives. This is the issue to be confronted by Mt. Vernon and North Posey high schools on April 29, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. in the Posey Circuit Court.

At a public forum students from both high schools with the able oversight of their teachers will present a mock trial to members of the Posey County Bar Association. The Bar is once again sponsoring a celebration of Law Day. The public is invited.

Members of the Bar will comprise a jury led by Attorney William Bender, President of the Bar and jury foreperson. Judge Brent Almon of the Posey Superior Court will preside. Students will portray mock trial parties and witnesses who will be represented and examined by student attorneys. This will be the 30^th straight year our schools have joined in the celebration of right over might.

The facts of this year’s case are set forth below:

“On Sunday, April 3, 2016 Joel Goodsen who is a senior at Rapture High School in Posey County, Indiana was driving by the front door to the high school. Joel planned to do some running on the high school track. It was 9:30 a.m. The weather was clear. As he was driving Joel was texting his friend Miles Dalby.

Joel momentarily took his eyes from the screen of his iPhone and saw someone he thought might be his classmate, Thelma Louis, spray-painting on the glass door. Joel pulled up Snapchat and took a photo, which he sent to Miles. Joel had his Snapchat timer set for ten seconds.

Miles immediately captured the Snapchat photograph with a screenshot that showed some of the left side of the person’s face and the large word “Bomb” painted on the door. There was other writing on the door, but it was too small for Joel to see or for Miles to make it out from the photograph. Miles encrypted the photo and protected it with a new four numeral and four letter password.

The spray-painter looked up as Joel’s pickup drove by. The person dropped the spray-paint can then sprayed paint remover on the smaller writing and ran to a Honda motorcycle parked beside the entrance. The person was wearing black Isotoner gloves, a black hoodie, black sweat pants and chartreuse tennis shoes. The painter mounted the Honda, pulled a pair of black goggles from the hoodie’s front pouch and left at a high rate of speed. The painting dissolved away as Joel tried to run up to the door to read it. 

Joel called his mother, Marla Goodsen, and told her what he had seen. Joel did not feel confident in his identification so he did not relate his suspicions to either his mother or Miles.

Mrs. Goodsen instructed Joel to call school superintendent Elmer Gantry immediately. She found his telephone number for Joel using the Whitepages app on her iPhone.

Joel called Mr. Gantry who thanked Joel and called his friend Jane E. Hoover, who is an F.B.I. agent stationed in Evansville.

When Gantry called Hoover she happened to be having coffee with her fiancé, Whittaker Chambers of the C.I.A., at Sara’s Coffee Shop in New Harmony. They alerted both of their agencies who authorized the seizure of both Joel’s and Miles’s cell phones if a judge would issue a warrant.

Together they applied for a search warrant from a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). The judge issued the warrant and Jane and Whittaker executed the warrant. They seized both cell phones but were unable to access either of them concerning the Snapchat photograph or the captured screenshot from Miles’s iPhone.

Joel did not know of any way to retrieve a Snapchat photograph after it was deleted and Miles could not remember the password he used. Neither Joel nor Miles refused to cooperate.

The Snapchat software was created by Black Briar Computer Company and Miles’s iPhone was designed by Appleby Computer Company. Black Briar refused to develop software to retrieve images from The Cloud and Appleby refused to develop software to find Miles’s password.

Rapture High School along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency filed a civil law suit against both computer companies seeking a court order forcing the computer companies to cooperate.”

Once the Mock Trial is concluded, at 11:00 a.m. a panel of Indiana Appellate court judges will hear oral argument on an actual pending case. The judges are John Baker, Melissa May and Mark Bailey. They will conduct their hearing in the courtroom of the Posey Circuit Court in Mt. Vernon.

This event is also open to the public. Please join the students, the Posey County Bar and the Court of Appeals in commemorating America’s freedom, democracy and rule of law.