Does the author of an email have to be in court

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

For it to matter?

I have an eight-page letter, written by “Kathy” whom I’ve discussed in other posts here. In it, she goes into tremendous detail about the immoral and illegal activities she and my ex participated in. Smoking pot together, him buying her pot, getting her to lie to me, getting my younger child to lie to me, all kinds of stuff about sexual allegations between the two of them. At our temp hearing, they both denied any of this activity–although it’s been an issue, a huge one, for me for literally years. (I have never gotten over it, honestly).

From what I have been told by an attorney I went to see for a consultation, they probably don’t want her there. She’s too much of a liability to them now. Yes, I was stupid, and I told them that I had found this letter. It’s an email, stamped with the AOL stuff on teh bottom of each page, nothing tampered with.

But if I wanted the judge to “hear” this letter, would Kathy have to be there, or is the email itself considered her “written testimony”? Does she have to be there in order for me to read it out loud to the judge. Trust me, this is an unbelievably damning letter. She wrote it to my ex, once she figured out on her own what he had done to her during her teen years (You stole my mother from me . . . you emotionally raped me . . . you lied to me about her [me] and to her about me, etc, etc, etc, etc,) with LOADS of details, all of which match what I myself reported to CPS years ago.

Do I have to subpoena her, in order to get this entered into evidence?

The fact that they both denied what happened during the temp hearing . . .is that allowed to be brought up at the permanent hearing. For me, in real life (and court’s not real life, in my opinion), this letter just indicates the amount of emotional and mental damage done to my daughter by my ex. And the dishonesty–they are both inveterate liars. She lies to me, she lies about me, and she walks into court takes and oath, and lies to the judge about me. Same for him. This letter really shows so much of the dysfunction that my ex was responsible for.

Does she have to be there?

2

The letter is not written testimony. There is no way to authenticate the latter without Kathy being present to identify the email address. You may subpoena her to court to have her present and may cross examine her regarding the email.

3

What abotu email sent to me by son, who is still a minor? Would he have to be present.

And about authenticating? What if the person just lies under oath? That’s what happened in May, and I anticipate it happening again. What good then, does email, do?

But now I’m mostly concerned about the emails between my son and myself. There were literally hundreds of them, between him and me (helping him with school assignments while he was away at school) and also sent by me to his advisor at school, and the year before another teacher? IS MY emial address enough?

4

I do not believe the judge will allow an email from your son into evidence. Children are rarely asked to testify at trial, and his testimony would be necessary to authenticate the email.

The judge as the trier of fact has to make a determination regarding what he or she believes as true with respect to disputed facts.

5

They are planning, from what I gather, to have him testify at court. What then? WOULD the judge condone this? She accepted an affidavit from him, which I was told by a local attorney they are not supposed to do.

6

A child should not normally testify in court. If the judge does allow it, you will be able to question him as well.

7

What are good reasons that a judge would allow a child to testify. This one is sixteen, going on seventeen.

8

The judge determines if the child’s testimony will be useful to her in such a way that it is prudent to put the child on the stand in light of the potential harm to the child.