Comments on: Police blotter: Web cookies become defendant's alibi

Texas man says Web browser's cookies prove he was at home online, not at his ex-wife's residence.

[malynj]

What was the convincing evidence?

It looks like they only had the testimony of two witnesses that he was at the ex-wife's step-father's house, which is countered by the testimony of two other witnesses that he was at home. No other supporting evidence in either way that is reported here. Was there something else not reported that proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he was at the ex-wife's step-father's house? Is beyond a reasonable doubt not required for this type of conviction? Anything with jail time attached should require some type of beyond reasonable doubt attached to it. What it is was bitter seperation, and this was her way of getting back at him? What if it was someone else that looked similar driving some vehicle the ex-husband had never used? Hopefully there was more to this than what was reported.

[Thomas, David]

No evidence required

In some states, accusation is enough to get you arrested, and held.
Period. And yes that completely sucks.

However this story didn't provide enough information to form an
opinion about the case. Just enough information to indicate that if
he was innocent, it's obvious that his legal counsel was inept,
because they lack a basic understanding of a cookies, computers,
and file systems.

[VI Joker]

There was none.

They could not associate the vehicle the ex-wife say with the guy, and the officer could not find anyone fitting the ex-husband's description in the area. The phone records from the mother's house should have been requested to show the the brother did indeed call. In end it sounds like they said this and they said that.

[wiley14]

... ahh, the wheels of justice

"Guilty until proven innocent."

I'm missing something here...

Obviously the cookie can be faked, and it would be very easy to 'automate' web browsing to make it look like you were home.

But that aside, I'm not seeing where there is any actual evidence that this guy did anything. I sincerely hope there's a lot more to the story than is presented.

[everettru]

This story is about me and you wont believe the details

This is really a very alarming case! I was home on a Saturday morning looking at a couple home improvement store's websites. While doing this I recieved a phone call from brother whom was in Orlando, FL. for work. We spoke for 24 minutes during which he asked me to log onto irs.org to check the status of his tax refund check, which I did. I had sworn statements of my whereabouts as well. So I had phone records and my computer records.

Well, the phone records were not allowed to be admited to court because my lawyer had highlighted the call w/ a yellow pen and she didnt have a complete phone bill. Prosecution said those were "tampered with" and not allowed. I gave this info to her 3 weeks prior to court date. She admitted to me that she knew nothing about computers and even less about "cookies". I repeatedly stressed to her we need to have the machine looked at and it will show that there never was any changes made to alter the harddrive. I made a copy of the cookies window and put it on a floppy disc...I didnt know whatelse to do. That, of course, was valueless w/ their forensic detective's statement. All the while the computer sat on the bench behind the defendants table. So ALL of my evidence was either not allowed or just ignored because my counsel wasnt comfortable with computers.

This is supposed to be something you read about in the newspaper....I was given 365 days and $4000 fine for something I did not do! Because I didnt have thousands of $$ to hire a "real" lawyer (I was getting over major surgery} my ineffective, incompetent and disinterested counsel I will be a statistic....and that is a real shame!

I have demanded that this lawyer pay the $4086.00 fine they gave me, $2000.00 of which was her fee, if you can believe that! I have also demanded she pay the $4800 I have spent trying to appeal this mess. The Texas Bar Association is involved and I will not....we as American's cannot, just let something like this go unnoticed. All because of a very cold, bitter ex-wife decides to put on a show for the police and make a false allegation.

[SAA999]

No facts

Cookies can be manipulated. I can think of several ways right now. Also how do we know you were the one at the computer.

Fianlly, and the story pointed this out, why not subpoena you ISP or the web pages you visited for their logs during this time? Failure to do so sounds extremely fishy to me.

[hawkeyeaz1]

Easy things to do:

Set the phone to forward calls
Set a schedule to load a website OR change the computer's time/date
Control a computer remotely with appropriate software

So with the given information, the guy only made a joke.

[zboot]

Or maybe he's innocent

There is NOT enough evidence here to make a guilty or innocent determination. You may say that he faked this alibi, however, who is to say the women did not fake their accusation. Lying about something you saw is much easier than faking alibis that tie together multiple people, telecoms, ISPs, government websites all so you can sneak behind some bushes and watch your ex.

Let me guess, he setup an automated browser to login to his father's tax return and check the status but was too incompetent to push a stronger alibi in court? Come on!