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Planted Evidence VS Mental Illness

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CDKatz

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

My boyfriend has been arrested and is going to court due to a vengeful ex-roommate planting illegal graphic material involving children on his computer while he wasn't home the day he was told he was being kicked out (then of course went to the police). The ex roommate, a month later, was charged with a crime of theft greater than $50. His girlfriend, his accomplice in the planting of evidence and notifying the authorities, is not of best character as she has had her own child taken away by CPS. Both of these people are known in their social circles as constant liars and manipulators.

The ex roommate claims to have found the materials one day, but then waited several days to get his girlfriend and notify authorities. Said ex roommate also claims to have only lived there a month, when other sources can say he'd been there at least four. The search warrant also states he is a resident when he was never on the lease.

So far with my boyfriend and his lawyer the current plea bargain is 6 in jail or take it to trial. This is because no one has yet to go by the actual credibility of the accusers nor really see my boyfriend as a person. They just see the evidence and the fact it was his computer so the prosecuting side assumes he did it. They consider it to be open and closed case.

If the court continues to not listen to reason given the characters of the accusers and of my boyfriend (his record is squeaky clean and he'd never done anything wrong up until this point), could his psychiatric diagnoses keep him out of jail? He's been diagnosed by a licensed psychiatrist of Borderline Personality Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, General Anxiety, and ADHD. If he had to plead guilty, one of the main symptoms of Borderline is extreme measures taken for one's sexual gratification (and includes seeking out hardcore materials). Could he use that to his advantage if there is no way they will listen to his proof of innocence?

He really can't afford to go to jail. He just got a nice job and supports our home and our family. I'm currently living off of disability and rely on him for physical and emotional support. Is there a way that this could keep him out? (He'd GLADLY take sentencing to a psychiatric hospital over prison.)
 


tranquility

Senior Member
Actually, it makes it more likely a fact finder would find him guility. Insanity defense is far more difficult than having mental issues.
 

CavemanLawyer

Senior Member
Has a forensic analysis been done on the computer? This is a pretty customary practice for child pornography prosecution. As long as these files were still present on the hard drive and not deleted, as your post seems to indicate, then it could be determined when the file(s) were created on the computer. Depending on how they got there, there may be a trail of that as well. If the files were only recently created before this ex-roommate reported it, that could lend some credence to his defense. It also would be very important to note the specific time of day that the files were created and last accessed to see if he has an alibi. He may be able to show that he was in class or work, or something else during those times and show that the roommate was not. Child porn prosecutions where the computer is accessible to multiple people usually come down to parsing the creation and access times of each offending file and surrounding files to link the defendant to the porn, and to rule others out.

Note that the times of the files are going to be generated by the windows clock and can easily be incorrect or spoofed if you knew to take that precaution. But the clock time will be noted in the analysis and can be adjusted accordingly if it appears it is just off (ex: off by a few minutes or off by exactly one hour due to time change.)

Also note that there may be alot your boyfriend isn't telling you. Nobody and I mean nobody wants to admit that they look at this stuff. The State may have some forensics in their hands that definitively show that he did it. You never know.

As far as his mental issues, that more likely would be used for mitigation not as a defense. If convicted he could present that evidence to the Judge or jury in the hopes of receiving a lighter sentence. I have seen that backfire though. Juries often get mad when you say, " I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it..... ok fine here's why I did it."
 

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