Can text evidence be disproved in court as hearsay?

[Mom12081976]

My boyfriend's ex-wife sends him harassing text messages constantly about me. She calls me racists names, fat, ugly, says I look like a tranny, etc. She even says nasty things about my 13 year old son. She took half naked pictures of herself in bathroom selfies and tagged me and my boyfriend in them on Instagram. She also says nasty things to her 13-year old son about me. She even told him that I posed nude in a porn magazine (completely untrue).

Mind you, this is a woman in her mid-40s that I have literally NEVER spoken to her in life...like ever. It's all been this awful, volatile, one-sided tirade because she doesn't want my boyfriend to move on and be happy.

We filed harassment charges against her last fall and we are supposed to go to court next week. The state's attorney called today and said that her lawyer will say that we can't prove it was her sending those texts. Even though we literally have pages and pages and pages of text and social media evidence, they can say that we cannot ultimately prove that it was actually her and not someone else that sent those texts.

I am so upset - I just want justice to be served and for the court to put in writing that she can no longer harass us anymore. It's so not fair!

Can anyone share their experience with this? Will she be able to get off scott-free with the hearsay defense? How can we prove it was her?

[Blubber]

This is not hearsay.
She might be guilty, or she might not. The problem is that the District Attorney cannot prove without a reasonable doubt that she did it. Therefore, he is not going to waste taxpayer money prosecuting her.

[WRG]

He can prove the texts came from a phone that is registered in her name if the phone is registered in her name. He may just not be willing to spend the time and money to do so. The social websites are tougher to prove. But can be used as evidence.

[jaymes_07]

Her lawyer isn't objecting to the texts based on the hearsay rule, but rather the lack of foundation rule.

You need to lay the proper foundation to PROVE she sent the texts. For all the Judge knows you sent the texts and he put her name as the contact info for you to merely make it appear that she sent them.

Basically, you need documentation from the phone company establishing what her cell # is and the cell # that sent the texts to verify that they actually came from her.

[Diana B]

"The state's attorney called today and said that her lawyer will say that we can't prove it was her sending those texts"

Could be. You might try asking a technical question about whether text messages can be spoofed. (If it's possible, then that would explain why you are getting so much flack from a woman you have no real ties with.

"we literally have pages and pages and pages of text and social media evidence, they can say that we cannot ultimately prove that it was actually her and not someone else that sent those texts. :

Then you don't have evidence. That's what evidence is - anything that proves the veracity of a claimed fact. If your pages and pages of text don't prove that it was sent by this woman, then it's not evidence.

"Will she be able to get off scott-free with the hearsay defense?"

You are completely wrong about hearsay. This has nothing to do with hearsay.

Hearsay is not a defense to a criminal charge or a civil claim. Hearsay is a rule of evidence. The rules of evidence restrict your ability to offer into evidence anything depending on 1) what the evidence is and 2) what purpose you are trying to bring it in for.

Hearsay evidence is evidence in the form of statements made out of court, and you're trying to bring those statements in to prove the truth of the substance of those statements. That has nothing to do with your case.

This woman is relying on defense of reasonable doubt over evidence.