In Resistance To A Prosecution Request To Play An NSA Audio Recording
FLASHBACK: Former Speaker Koffa, the 3 sitting lawmakers and others earlier in the ongoing casel
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- Did state prosecutors use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate evidence used to indict former House Speaker Fonati Koffa and others being tried for allegedly setting ablaze the Joint Chambers of the Legislature?
Lawyers representing the legal interest of the former Speaker, three other sitting lawmakers and other co-defendants in the ongoing arson trial at the Criminal Court “A” have declared one of the prosecution evidence as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) document.
Former Speaker, Koffa and the other defendants have since denied allegations linking them to arson and other crimes at the Capitol Building in December 2024. After Being Released From Prison On Bail, Ex-Speaker Koffa Vows To Thrash Police Evidence Linking Lawmakers To Capitol Arson – News Public Trust
The defense declaration came when prosecution made an application for playing of an audio recordings extracted by a National Security Agency (NSA) personnel during police investigation.
Defense in continuing to reject prosecution audio evidence, stated that officer Rafell Wilson of the Liberia National Police should not be allowed to testify to those audio recordings because he wasn’t the one who extracted the recordings from defendant Thomas Etheridge phone rather, it an agent of the NSA only named “JJ”.
In the defense lawyers’ argument, they claimed during the preliminary hearing at the Monrovia City Court in June of this year, it “JJ” of the NSA who testified to the audio and he will be the best person to testify to such recordings instead of officer Wilson who is an investigator of the Liberia National Police.
How the application was resolved by the Judge
Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie said, in order to resolve the matter, the court must answer three questions.
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What is hear say evidence? Whether or not there’s an exception?
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What the purpose of preliminary examination as it relates to the Circuit Court?
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Whether or not, this court can grant prosecution request? Is it compulsory for JJ to testify?
In addressing the first issue which has to do with hearsay, there are exceptions citing Civil procedure law of Liberia section 12.7.4.
Judge Willie answering the purpose of preliminary examination as it relates to the Circuit Court said, the purpose of preliminary examination is to establish probable cause or whether a crime was committed in order to transfer to the court that has jurisdiction over said matter. He stated, at the magisterial court, sometimes probable cause can be found but the grand jury can set the defendant free if there’s no evidence.
Criminal Court “A” judge cited Liberia’s Criminal procedure law 12.1.
As for the third question, whether JJ can be compared to testify because testified at the magisterial court, judge Willie added that, the court cannot compare JJ to testify because what was done at the magisterial court was preliminary examination and he therefore denied the defense rejection of prosecution evidence.
But the defense took exception to the Judge’s ruling.
After the ruling, defense lawyer Cllr. Arthur Johnson again objected to the admission of the evidence because it lacks the chain of custody something which he claimed was Ducture and such audio recordings must be transcribed to be satisfied by a voice recording expert.
Cllr. Johnson asserted that he’s not a voice recording expert but rather he’s an investigator at the Liberia national police. ”Only an expert will tell whether or not a voice recording is authentic,” the defense Lawyer added.
Defense lawyer Johnson claimed that the witness Rafell Wilson failed to state who, when, where and how the voice recordings were extracted adding that the evidence attempted to be introduced is manipulated.
He said that his objection is supported by rule of evidence and many Supreme Court opinions of which is Tubman vs Republic.
However, that line of argument by the defense was again denied by the Judge reaffirming his earlier ruling.
Meanwhile, while on the direct examination, prosecution first witness, Rafell Wilson said, most of audio recordings were gathered from defendant, Thomas Etheridge’s phone through the help of the NSA as his testimony continues.