Oregon Texting as Hearsay, (alleged) Pimp (“promote prostitution”) Case (Court of Appeals)

State of Oregon v. John Elwood Causey, Jr., A148112, 265 Or App __ (2014) (Multnomah County Circuit Court, 100646533)

Excerpt from case:

“DE MUNIZ, S. J.

“Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for attempting to promote prostitution, ORS 167.012(1)(d).On appeal, defendant assigns error to the admission into evidence of conversations recorded by an undercover police officer, printouts from a website that contained photos and phone numbers, and text messages from two women that were recovered from defendant’s cell phone. According to defendant, the admission of that evidence violated OEC 801 and defendant’s right to confrontation under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution. We conclude that the trial court’s admission of the text messages sent from one of the women to defendant was error requiring that we reverse defendant’s convictions and remand for a new trial….” [Link to full case.]

From August 20, 2014, OJD Media Release:
“State of Oregon v. John Elwood Causey, Jr. (De Muniz, S. J.)
Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for attempting to promote prostitution, assigning error to the admission into evidence of, among other things, a series of text messages from a woman that was recovered from defendant’s cell phone. Defendant argues that the text messages are inadmissible hearsay and that their admission violated his right to confrontation under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution. 8 Held: Because the text messages were out-of-court statements and their relevance depended on the truth of the content of the messages, the messages were hearsay and not admissible. Reversed and remanded.”

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(Apologies for graceless blog post title, but if you want to find this case in the future, and don’t have access to a good digest or index of cases ….)