Is it legal to use this information?

What is the name of your state? Nevada

I'm not sure if this is the right forum but here goes.
I am in the beginning of a custody case. In October, I purchased a computer from my ex (we were not in the custody case at the time and amicable)
When I got the computer back, I noticed things missing from the data he transferred from my old computer to my new one. I asked him about it and he claimed no knowledge.
Later when things went bad, he e-mailed everyone from my address book and some of the addresses dated back to when I got the new computer, evident by the people who recieved the e-mail whose addresses had been updated since that time.
Today on the issue of a TPO, he tried to introduce a series of e-mails between me and another person- e-mails that were in my mailbox and those that I had asked about months earlier. Other notable things missing from my computer were Word documents and files that I had "just in case" and e-mails from him. There is a lot of very personal information that I had on my computer, including system passwords etc, as well.

I have a few questions.
First, is it legal for him to use information that he stole from me? I never gave him this information, he took it when he performed a paid service for me. (yes, I paid him for the new computer and to transfer my old computer. He didn't do it as a friend or a kindness but as a professional in the computer industry)
Second, is it stealing and do I have any recourse to get this information/property back from him? Or a reason to press charges?

Third, can anything that he obtained from my computer legally be used in a court case such as a custody hearing or introduced as evidence in ANY hearing?

(There was nothing illegal about the stuff he removed/kept. I had a heated argument via e-mail with someone and the other things would have incriminated him not me)

I feel violated and have no idea what other personal information he is using. I trusted him when I bought my computer (we had been basically amicable for over seven years) but things went very bad, very fast, due to no fault of my own.

The answer to all of your questions is you have no control over the information that remained on your compter when ownership was transferred. If you didn't want him to have it, you should have removed it before giving it to him.

As to can he use it in court, the answer is yes. Whether or not the judge will allow it into evidence, that's a matter for the judge to decide.

mischka said:

What is the name of your state? Nevada

I'm not sure if this is the right forum but here goes.
I am in the beginning of a custody case. In October, I purchased a computer from my ex (we were not in the custody case at the time and amicable)
When I got the computer back, I noticed things missing from the data he transferred from my old computer to my new one. I asked him about it and he claimed no knowledge.
Later when things went bad, he e-mailed everyone from my address book and some of the addresses dated back to when I got the new computer, evident by the people who recieved the e-mail whose addresses had been updated since that time.
Today on the issue of a TPO, he tried to introduce a series of e-mails between me and another person- e-mails that were in my mailbox and those that I had asked about months earlier. Other notable things missing from my computer were Word documents and files that I had "just in case" and e-mails from him. There is a lot of very personal information that I had on my computer, including system passwords etc, as well.

I have a few questions.
First, is it legal for him to use information that he stole from me? I never gave him this information, he took it when he performed a paid service for me. (yes, I paid him for the new computer and to transfer my old computer. He didn't do it as a friend or a kindness but as a professional in the computer industry)
Second, is it stealing and do I have any recourse to get this information/property back from him? Or a reason to press charges?

Third, can anything that he obtained from my computer legally be used in a court case such as a custody hearing or introduced as evidence in ANY hearing?

(There was nothing illegal about the stuff he removed/kept. I had a heated argument via e-mail with someone and the other things would have incriminated him not me)

I feel violated and have no idea what other personal information he is using. I trusted him when I bought my computer (we had been basically amicable for over seven years) but things went very bad, very fast, due to no fault of my own.

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Is there a prior order for custody? Because if the emails or the fight happened before then, they can't use it.
Emails have to follow and be submitted under rules of evidence. They are easily manipulated, I know, I'm going through a custody fight with an evil soul who's been keeping email for years and only presents the ones that he wants the judge or his lawyer to see. Silly me, I don't keep email. If they weren't email to or from him or about him then they probably won't be admissible.

bliss_in_texas said:

I'm going through a custody fight with an evil soul who's been keeping email for years and only presents the ones that he wants the judge or his lawyer to see. Silly me, I don't keep email.

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Just as a side note - of course he's only going to present the ones he wants his lawyer or the judge to see - you would do the same. Noone in their right mind presents evidence that doesn't support their position. And it is very, very foolish not to keep copies of correspondence.

stealth2 said:

Just as a side note - of course he's only going to present the ones he wants his lawyer or the judge to see - you would do the same. Noone in their right mind presents evidence that doesn't support their position. And it is very, very foolish not to keep copies of correspondence.

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Perhaps it is foolish not to keep email, but I was never in the mindset of "hey, maybe I can use this against him someday". Apparently he was.
When you are getting along with someone and don't suspect they are a snake in the grass, you don't keep every little thing they send you.
And as an aside, the files that I did keep were lost when my hard drive crashed. I know I know, backup..backup..backup.

mischka said:

What is the name of your state? Nevada

I'm not sure if this is the right forum but here goes.
I am in the beginning of a custody case. In October, I purchased a computer from my ex (we were not in the custody case at the time and amicable)
When I got the computer back, I noticed things missing from the data he transferred from my old computer to my new one. I asked him about it and he claimed no knowledge.
Later when things went bad, he e-mailed everyone from my address book and some of the addresses dated back to when I got the new computer, evident by the people who recieved the e-mail whose addresses had been updated since that time.
Today on the issue of a TPO, he tried to introduce a series of e-mails between me and another person- e-mails that were in my mailbox and those that I had asked about months earlier. Other notable things missing from my computer were Word documents and files that I had "just in case" and e-mails from him. There is a lot of very personal information that I had on my computer, including system passwords etc, as well.

I have a few questions.
First, is it legal for him to use information that he stole from me? I never gave him this information, he took it when he performed a paid service for me. (yes, I paid him for the new computer and to transfer my old computer. He didn't do it as a friend or a kindness but as a professional in the computer industry)
Second, is it stealing and do I have any recourse to get this information/property back from him? Or a reason to press charges?

Third, can anything that he obtained from my computer legally be used in a court case such as a custody hearing or introduced as evidence in ANY hearing?

(There was nothing illegal about the stuff he removed/kept. I had a heated argument via e-mail with someone and the other things would have incriminated him not me)

I feel violated and have no idea what other personal information he is using. I trusted him when I bought my computer (we had been basically amicable for over seven years) but things went very bad, very fast, due to no fault of my own.

Click to expand...

Did you pay him by check or money order (payment that can be traced?) If so, you could present that documentation, note that no emails past that date were used by him (since you had the computer back), and then if he files the email information- respond via declaration/affidavit that you did not release that information to him and how he obtained it.

It will be up to a judge to decide if the emails are relevant or not, whether the timeline of events you present is logical and whether or not you can present documentation to support your theory (payment for him repairing).

If that's the worst thing he comes up with, I wouldn't worry too much. (Unless the emails contain information you haven't included)

Well yes, there are things on my computer that I didn't bring up. I had the computer for five years. Basically anything anyone would have in an e-mail box they never purged. I kept nearly all of my e-mail correspondance, IM conversations, and I'm sure that I vented here and there. It doesn't have anything illegal or highly immoral on it though. If he copied the entire hard drive then he has everything I've ever put on the computer. All of my Word docs, excel, my internet favorites everything that a normal person has on their computers. Like I said, I had it for five years.

Yes, I did pay by check. At the time, he was paying a small amount in child support and I offered for him to just reduce it by what I agreed to pay him but he was the one who insisted that he pay the full amount and then I write a check back to him. We were amicable (or so I thought). I might have paid one payment in cash but at least two by check.

No, there is no prior order for custody. We were never married and we did everything verbally for the last 7+ years.

I didn't transfer ownership to him. I paid him for a new computer and for the work to transfer everything from my dying computer to the new computer.

So far, in the TPO hearing, the judge didn't allow the e-mails. I don't know what will happen in the custody hearing but he's playing dirty. He's making up lies (claims I do drugs- which can be proven that I don't, claims my husband uses medicinal marijuana- he doesn't, he's questioned paternity, yadda, yadda) all of the horror stories I heard from friends and their custody cases.

I have an even bigger concern with the fact that he has my life basically. I am a writer and there is a few original manuscripts on my old computer. I had some passwords stored in e-mails. I changed a lot of my passwords once I discovered what he had done but I'm still concerned with his ability to access my accounts or anything like that. He's very computer savvy. Several years ago he had a girlfriend who was cheating on him (after us) and he sent her a nasty virus that wiped out her computer. He found out she was cheating by hacking into her e-mail. She never knew he was the one who did it.

BelizeBreeze said:

The answer to all of your questions is you have no control over the information that remained on your compter when ownership was transferred. If you didn't want him to have it, you should have removed it before giving it to him.

As to can he use it in court, the answer is yes. Whether or not the judge will allow it into evidence, that's a matter for the judge to decide.

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Just to reiterate, I didn't transfer ownership. I bought a new computer from him and part of this purchase included his transfering all of my old computer, onto my new computer. I didn't want him to have it. I wasn't giving it to him. The computer was dying and I wanted to save all of my stuff before the drive completely crashed.

mischka said:

Just to reiterate, I didn't transfer ownership. I bought a new computer from him and part of this purchase included his transfering all of my old computer, onto my new computer. I didn't want him to have it. I wasn't giving it to him. The computer was dying and I wanted to save all of my stuff before the drive completely crashed.

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So how did he get the computer? Did he steal it or did you give it to him when you no longer needed it?

newguyhere said:

So how did he get the computer? Did he steal it or did you give it to him when you no longer needed it?

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Newguy....go back and read the thread.....

LdiJ said:

Newguy....go back and read the thread.....

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I did...

mischka said:

If he copied the entire hard drive then he has everything I've ever put on the computer.

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If is the part that gets me. I am confused whether she gave him the computer once she was done with it. You would think that she would know how he got the information but she said IF.

Newguy- I'm fairly certain that he copied the hard drive because the e-mail addresses he used when he e-mailed everyone in my address book dates back to when I got the computer. Because he is very knowledgeable regarding computers, and because he has hacked into other people's computers (I know this because he has told me this) there is a small possibility that he hacked into my computer and got the information that way. This seems unlikely because of the e-mail addresses that he used- some were updated since I got the newer computer (and if he had hacked in, he would have used the newer addresses I assume) but I don't know 100% that he copied the hard drive, or that he hacked in. My strongest inclination, based on the facts so far, is that he copied it when I got the new one.

I should also add that the computer I bought is one that he built for me. It's not like a Dell or any name brand. He used parts from my old computer and new parts as well including two new hard drives. The old hard drive was in the final stages about to crash. This is not the first computer I have purchased from him. Prior to his recent relationship, we were basically friends. He even attended my own wedding three years ago. In the past, he has disposed of the old parts that couldn't be reused on my computer or given me back things that could. I never had a reason to personally not trust him. We got along. When I got the latest computer, we were (as far as I knew) still on good terms. This had been our situation for over 7 years.
The computer was dying. The one I was replacing was junk with a few breaths of life left to transfer it's data before it ended up in the garbage. I believed that as in the past, what wasn't salvageable would be trashed.