4.Collier Portrait, Bulk Telephone Records, and Restricted Autopsy-Photograph Display
35 linesTHE COURT: Just while we have the jury out of the room, after this witness?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: We have a brief witness who's going to describe the press conference and introduce some photos from the press conference that we've agreed upon, and then we'll move to MIT.
THE COURT: Okay. And there was a controversy about one of the pictures?
MR. BRUCK: Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Let me see the numbers. So I'm told they're 676, 677 and 678. Do you know which one it is you're --
MS. CONRAD: The picture we object to is the graduation photo in which Officer Collier is back by the flag, and we just think that's -- 77.
MS. CLARKE: 677.
MR. BRUCK: 677.
THE COURT: I guess my question is: Why do we need three photographs?
MS. PELLEGRINI: Well, your Honor, having Chief DiFava explain how Sean Collier was hired by MIT and his experience before he joined the MIT police force, we were asking him about what path Sean took, and one of them was that he attended the police academy. I asked him about what uniform he was in at that time. He said Somerville, and he explained why it was Somerville and not MIT, and that he recognized this as being his graduation photo. So that was part of his story of how Sean joined the force.
And then the other picture is of him in his MIT uniform which, as the Court can see, is different. And the explanation for that is that is that uniform, and that was also his identification card.
THE COURT: Well, I think it's cumulative. I don't believe you need more than one, frankly.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Well, can I use --
THE COURT: You can have the narrative of what his career path was but --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Can I use the one they're not complaining of, then, the general one and the other?
THE COURT: Fine. You can use the civilian one as well.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Your Honor, since the jury is not here, if Ms. Conrad intends to attempt to introduce phone records that the government objects to, introducing defense evidence in the government case, perhaps we should deal with that now as opposed to wasting the jury's time when they come out.
THE COURT: I think I've already ruled on that.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Okay.
MS. CONRAD: Well, your Honor, I am planning to ask Agent Fitzgerald questions about his review of phone records, and I assume that that is permissible. And I also -- to the extent there are excerpts from phone records that are in the government's chalk, I intend to show the phone records from which those were drawn.
THE COURT: Well, we'll see how it goes. I don't think the records themselves -- the volume of records themselves should be admitted. So something else?
MR. MELLIN: Yes. While the jury is out of the room, it may surprise you we're actually in agreement on the point I'm about to raise, and that concerns the autopsy photos of Officer Sean Collier.
There are three photos that we intend to use. I don't think there's any objection to those three photos. What we would like to do, though, is not have those photos broadcast, that those photos just be shown to your Honor and to the jury, to the witness, but not put on the big screens.
THE COURT: Well, somebody, I don't know who, gave me a set of --
MR. MELLIN: I gave you --
THE COURT: -- autopsy photos.
MR. MELLIN: -- the PowerPoint that was put together by Dr. Robinson.
And if you look at the first photo of the head of Officer Collier, we will use that photograph. As you turn the page, the next photo of the side, and then a picture --
THE COURT: I think this is -- we've had some discussion about autopsy photographs in general, and I think the consensus is that they need not -- because of the nature of them, they need not be displayed publicly beyond the jury out of respect for the victims and their families.
I think perhaps the most feasible way would be the old-fashioned way and let the jury see paper copies. The electronics are a little more complex because of the way the system is configured.
MR. MELLIN: That's fine, your Honor. Over lunch hour we'll make 18 copies -- or 19 copies, one for the Court.
THE COURT: Any disagreement with that approach?
MS. CLARKE: No, that's fine. My understanding is that the big screens can be unplugged, and it works that way.
THE COURT: Yes, but it's more disruptive, I think, than using the paper. Anyway -- okay. Let's get the jury.
(Pause.)
COURT CLERK: All rise for the jury.
(The jury enters the courtroom at 11:32 a.m.)
COURT CLERK: Be seated.
MS. CONRAD: Thank you, your Honor.