"fight club" video evidence may be thrown out of court

Just as I was about to make fun of the subspecies known as lawyers, the news brings relevance to their musings about abandoned property.

Sidebar here: Born or made, nature vs nurture, whatever. Lawyers are not like other mortals. They relish contemplating, then arguing, what are called points of law. They can go on and on forever, even when not on the job. The email thread below proves that.

Back to what's abandoned, and when does something found become something stolen.

The court in Corpus Christi calls this image stolen, and may exclude it as evidence in the trial of state school officials who were running a fight club with mentally disabled youth.

This image made from a cell phone video clip released on Thursday, May 7, 2009 by the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, shows unidentified state school residents in a staged fight. On May 7, District Judge Jose Longoria ordered the city and its police department to turn over this and other videos to lawyers for the mother of a former state school resident who has sued the Department of Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the state schools. Attorney Bob Hilliard, who represents the former resident, 21-year-old Armando Hernandez Jr., and his mother, Inez Hernandez, said the client is not shown in the four videos that were released, but the footage substantiates what his client has said.

CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS / AP PHOTO

The whole story is worth a read.

The nutshell story: phone belonged to a former school employee, found at a store by a guy who thought it had music on it, no music but damning videos instead. Almost 20 videos since 2007.

So instead of boosting tunes, he gets videos that two tv stations pass on. (I bet he was trying to sell them.) Phone moves on to a woman who gives it to a cop buddy. And now, since the phone was not abandoned intentionally, its contents are protected. Read the story. It's sad all around.
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