Judge won’t block experts in Christensen trial

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A federal judge has denied attorneys’ request to block expert testimony in the trial of accused kidnapper Brendt Christensen.

Christensen’s attorneys had argued prosecutors did not properly disclose evidence they planned to use against Christensen at trial and merely “dumped a list of ten expert witness names on Defendant at the last minute on December 14, 2017.” Those expert witnesses would testify on topics including fingerprint analysis, audio/visual analysis, Chinese culture, canine cadaver searches and cell phone technology.

Read More from WAND17 Here

Spielbauer capital murder trial: Jurors watch video interview, hear cellphone testimony

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Jurors were shown video of an interview Spielbauer, 34, gave to Randall County Sheriff’s Office investigators on April 9, 2014 — one day after the body of Robin Spielbauer was found. In the taped interview at the sheriff’s office, Sgt. Allen Mongold, the lead investigator into Robin’s murder, presents Spielbauer with cellphone records showing he had arranged a meeting with Robin on the night she was killed.

“Text messages indicated very strongly that there was a planned meeting that night between the two of them,” Mongold testified in 251st District Court on Thursday.

Read More from the Amarillo Globe News Here

Jessica Hood set to stand trial in March for Weaver Road deaths, cell phone evidence is key to the case

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The Jessica Hood trial is now scheduled to begin in March and the reliability of technology that determines the time a cell phone was used will be key to the case. At a pretrial conference Wednesday, Circuit Judge James R. Schrand scheduled a pretrial conference for January 4, and a trial date of March 19. Hood was involved in an accident on Weaver Road in March, 2015, that killed two toddlers and their grandfather and injured two other people.

Read More From the Northern Kentucky Tribune Here

Google collects Android users’ locations even when location services are disabled

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Since the beginning of 2017, Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers—even when location services are disabled—and sending that data back to Google…The cell tower addresses have been included in information sent to the system Google uses to manage push notifications and messages on Android phones for the past 11 months, according to a Google spokesperson. They were never used or stored, the spokesperson said, and the company is now taking steps to end the practice after being contacted by Quartz. By the end of November, the company said, Android phones will no longer send cell-tower location data to Google, at least as part of this particular service, which consumers cannot disable.

Read More from Quartz Here

Supreme Court to hear major cellphone privacy case amid end-of-year blockbusters

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The Supreme Court is preparing to close out 2017 with a slew of blockbuster cases starting with a major cellphone privacy case Wednesday. The justices will hear arguments Wednesday in Carpenter v. United States, a case about the constitutionality of law enforcement searching and seizing — without a warrant — a cellphone user’s records to reveal that person’s locations and movements.

Read More from the Washington Examiner Here