District court did not abuse its
discretion in finding that electronic documents were appropriately
authenticated and admitted as business records under FRE 803(6). V Cable sued Budnick for buying and selling
pirate cable converters that allowed users to get free cable. In an unrelated police investigation into
said nefarious cable stealing activities, the police seized computer records of
a company with detailed records of sales made to Budnick. Plaintiff used testimony from the company’s
owner and printouts of the records against Budnick. Budnick argued that the evidence was
inadmissible because the chain of custody had been broken when the computer was
sent to a third party company for analysis.
Relying on the testimony of the company owner (that the records were consistent with his, and that he remembered Budnick) and the defendant’s
failure to show any abuse of discretion by the district court, the appellate
court affirmed the district court’s ruling.
v.
Lawrence BUDNICK, Defendant–Appellant
Counsel
Edward M. Gould, Islip, NY, for appellant.Daniel J. Lefkowitz, Jericho, NY, for appellees.