The New Breakup

by Tobi Elkin

In divorce cases, laws vary from state to state as to what evidence is admissible in court. Courts in some states can subpoena the information from hard drives and cell phone cards. In most divorce cases, there are some kinds of electronic evidence-gathering methods.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick faces potential perjury charges after claiming under oath that he didn’t have an affair with a city employee. However, proof of the affair was discovered in thousands of flirtatious text messages to his former staffer. It remains unclear as to whether the messages were accessed illegally but if they were obtained legally, the content can be admitted into court.

There are ways to clone computer hard drives and there are even computer programs that can download data stored on a memory card that resides in cell phones.

Colt Taylor, computer repair technician in Boca Raton, Florida, was called to a woman’s house for what he thought would be a routine call for virus protection. Instead, he was asked by the visibly angry woman to clear all instances of her estranged husband or boyfriend (she didn’t indicate which) from the hard drive and remove his “favorites.” Taylor did so, no questions asked. “She was just grateful to get rid of the data.”

As for the drummer, there is a happy ending: Bodnar plans to present the ex-girlfriend, who’s now his current girlfriend, with an engagement ring later this year. We’ll be on the lookout for the YouTube video proposal…