Interesting Evidentiary Issue in Manasquan Murder Trial
The criminal defense lawyer for a Manasquan man accused of murdering his wife argued a motion to suppress evidence this past week at the Monmouth County Superior Court. The evidence at issue is a crucial videotape containing statements made by the defendant to law enforcement during the investigation. The motion to suppress the videotape is based on the fact that the audio is so poor that only parts of the interview can be heard. The motion was argued before the Honorable Ira E. Kreizman at the Monmouth County Superior Court earlier this week.
Long segments of the audio on the videotape contain noises that make parts of the conversation inaudible. This allows the defense attorney to argue that the entire tape should be excluded. However, the prosecutor argued that the jury can listen to the tape and decide for themselves what they think they hear. The Judge must decide whether or not he thinks that the evidence is prejudicial to the defendant in that the jury may hear something that was not actually said because of the quality of the audio. There is also an issue as to whether the defendant invoked his right to counsel during the questioning and the Manasquan detective failed to respect this request and continued to question the defendant. We'll see how Judge Kreizman rules on this crucial issue. For additional information, see the Asbury Park Press article entitled, "Lawyer wants Stoedter videotape excluded from trial".
