Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: E-mails

E-mails are letters sent by electronic means. E-mails are admissible into evidence with the same requirements as any other documents. The party attempting to admit the E-mails has to lay some foundation for their genuiness.

The party sending the E-mails then has an opportunity to impugn their genuiness, or to put on testimony to explain or refute them.

Perjury is very rarely criminally prosecuted. I personally know of only one case of criminal prosecution of perjury. However, if the judge decides a witness is lying he or she will normally throw out all their testimony. And the lying doesn't have to be on the stand. The courts have a big bias for believing people that tell the truth in all their business and social interactions.

The person that turns the evidence over is rarely prosecuted if obtaining the evidence is done in contravention of a law with criminal penalties. D. A. has the discretion to criminally prosecute cases and they like to win. So they'll normally overlook a small crime (tape recording a conversation) to convict the criminal they are prosecuting. There are a number of search and seizure issues that may be raised in prosecuting a criminal case, because the police are agents of the government. However, these 4th Amendment issues are not relevant if a citizen does the same thing. The citizen isn't the government.

When you have evidence in a criminal case the best rule is to turn it over to the proper authorities, and let the chips fall where they may. I'd make several copies and give the investigating officer a copy, and send a copy to the D. A. while keeping a copy.