When are people going to learn? The truth is going to catch up with you sooner or later, especially in this age of rapidly evolving technology.
For example, some recent high profile criminal cases have revealed technology exists for law enforcement to pinpoint a person’s location, on any given day as long as that person has his/her cell phone on. Just ask Reginald Potts who was charged with the murder of Nailah Franklin, partly based on the FBI’s ability to put him and her together shortly before her murder using GPS tracking devices in both of their cell phones. Or ask Drew Peterson. The police used his cell signal to determine he was near the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal in Lockport the evening his wife Stacy disappeared, when he claimed to have been at home. Or ask the couple in Michigan who were convicted of murder based on e-mails the two exchanged while plotting how to kill her husband. The wife thought she erased them but the prosecutor was able to get a transcript of the messages from the internet service provider.
Now comes word the mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick could end up losing his job over thousands of steamy text messages he sent to his chief of staff. It’s not the messages that are going to get him fired; it’s the fact that he denied having the affair while under oath. The Detroit Free Press got a hold of 14,000 flirty and sometimes sexually explicit text messages the two exchanged about where to meet and how to hide it.
Here are some of the excerpts:
9/28/2002, 11:53 p.m.
Beatty: Where are you now?
Kilpatrick: At home waiting for all [executive protection unit officers] to leave. Where are you?
Beatty: At the residence inn in Madison hgts.
Kilpatrick: What rm?
Beatty: I'm in room 311 in bldg 3 in the back.
10/7/2002, 11:20 p.m.
Beatty: OK, I'm feeling like I want another night like the most recent Saturday at the Residence Inn! You made me feel so damn good that night. As you can see I can't let it go!
10/16/2002, 11:48 p.m.
Kilpatrick: I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days ... relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love.
So because he lied to a jury, he could not only lose his job and his law license, he could also face perjury charges.
Why do people do wrong and think they can get away with it, especially when they’ve left a digital trail to their front door? The lesson to be learned here, don’t use technology when you’re trying to be sneaky or better yet, don’t do anything wrong in the first place.
