Daily Archives: August 15, 2018

FRANK CARSON ET AL CASE

FOR ALL THE MARBLES

MORNING SESSION

08/15/2018

BY WILLIAM THOMAS JENSEN (TOM)

Week 17, Day 61

Court resumed this morning almost an hour late. Judge Zuniga was stuck in traffic driving from the Bay Area. Judge Zuniga is very ill, and I was barely able to hear her when she was speaking. She has a nasty cough. This trial is killing many of us one day at a time. I pray that she gets well very soon, and we can all survive this travesty of justice. I heard Marlisa Ferreira state to the defense attorneys that her case in chief will not be completed until the end of October. She still has 49 witnesses to call to the stand. So far, she has struck out with the vast majority of her witnesses. It is becoming increasingly difficult for her to smile while she is in the courtroom.

We start out at 9:56AM with defense attorney Jai Gohel continuing his cross examination of self- proclaimed cell phone expert Jim Cook. Jai starts out asking Cook about cell phone events on the cell phone device associated with Korey Kauffman on 03/30/2012. Korey Kauffman’s cell phone was a Cricket device. The cell phone tower that concerned these calls was the Modesto 030-A. The time period was between 5:22PM and 10:16PM. All the calls connected through the Eastern facing sector on the cell phone site. Jai Gohel goes over slide number 110 that shows that calls were hitting off the Eastern facing sector. Jai Gohel now shows slide number 120, which showed no call events from Korey Kauffman’s cell phone on 03/30/2012. Jai Gohel now shows that slide number 120 shows that none of the cell phone events hit off a sector of the cell phone site that would cover Frank Carson’s property or Michael Cooley’s house. Jim Cook reluctantly admitted that on the stand.

Jai Gohel now gets Jim Cook to admit on the stand that there was only one cell phone for Baljit Athwal that he reviewed, and he got all of his analysis from the cell phone data records that were obtained from AT&T. Jai Gohel asks Jim Cook if he did any propagation studies on Baljit Athwal’s cell phone calls. Jim Cook testifies that he did not do any propagation studies. Cook states that propagation studies must be done within 6 months of the event because of continuing changes in the equipment and technology. Cook testifies that a propagation study can be a hypothetical based on frequency and power, or can be done by doing a drive by test. Once again, he says that this must be done within 6 months of the event being analyzed. He states that neither of these were done.

Jai Gohel now goes over a long list of maps that were made by Jim Cook. The first one was map 91/229. Jai points out a section of the pie shaped mapping of the cell phone coverage of that cell phone site. It was the left border of the coverage area of that cell phone site. Jai asks Cook if that left border line of coverage was 170 degrees. Jim Cook says it was approximately 170 degrees. Cook admits that he drew the map using eye balling and a protractor. Jai asks Cook about another map which was 97/229. Once again, Cook states that the left hand border of coverage was approximately 170 degrees. On this map, the Carson property was right on the line between being in the coverage area, and not being in the coverage area of that cell phone tower site. Jai now shows Jim Cook slide number 98/229. Once again Cook states that the left hand border of coverage was approximately 170 degrees. Jai Gohel now presses Jim Cook to state what he means by using the term “Approximately.” Jim Cook gives his frequent answer that he can’t answer the question as posed. Jai Gohel mumbles “I thought so” loud enough so that everyone could hear. This brings out an immediate objection from Marlisa Ferreira, which was sustained. Every time Jim Cook gives this answer, I can see the jury roll their eyes and shake their heads. Jai Gohel tries to pin Jim Cook on how many degrees his mapping can be off. He asks Cook if it could be five degrees, seven degrees, ten degrees etc. Cook refuses to answer this question, even after being told by Judge Zuniga to answer the question. Jim Cook is losing the jury, and is losing the judge with his conduct on the stand.

Jai Gohel now shows Jim Cook slide 104/229. He asks the same question, and gets the same answer. He asks the same question on 109/229, 113/229, and 115/229. He gets the same answer from Jim Cook on each of those maps. On all of these maps, it is very questionable if the Carson property is in the coverage area. If Jim Cook is off just a few degrees with his mapping, it makes all the difference concerning the coverage of the Carson property. Jim Cook has already been shown to be off as much as 23 degrees on some of his mapping.

Jai Gohel now goes over 117/229, 122/229, 123/229, 125/229, 135/229, 143/229, 149/229. All of these maps have the Carson property just barely in the coverage area. With the “Eye balling” protractor method that Jim Cook uses, and the number of degrees that his maps can be off, the coverage of the Carson property is very much in doubt.

Jai Gohel now shows some maps that give a “blown up” view of the coverage area. He shows Cook 220/229, 221/229, and 224/229. In the map of 220/229, the Carson property was just touching the left side of the coverage area. In the 221/229 slide, the Carson property was on the line of coverage just barely. In the 224/229 slide, the Carson property was fully outside of the coverage area. Jai Gohel now goes into a hypothetical where Cook’s map was off by 7 degrees. He states that this would put the Carson property outside of the coverage area on slide number 221. Jim Cook stated that he could not answer the question as posed when he was asked if a variance of 8 degrees would make two text messages outside of the coverage area that were done at 1:03AM and 1:33AM from the cell phone device associated with Baljit Athwal. This was the text where Jim Cook had testified that it was the only time that it took 30 minutes or longer for Baljit Atwal to respond to a text from his wife. These texts happened on the night that Korey Kauffman was allegedly killed on the Carson property. Jim Cook tries to say that when Marlisa Ferreira asked him the question concerning this being the only time it took 30 minutes to respond, that Marlisa had given him a time period of 11:00PM to 2:00AM in her question. Jai Gohel is able to go back to the transcripts to show Jim Cook that Marlisa Ferreira had asked him if this was the only time ever that it took 30 minutes for him to answer a text from his wife. Jim Cook told Marlisa Ferreira this was the only time it took that long for Baljit to respond to his wife with a text. Jai Gohel asks Jim Cook why he is always taking notes while he testifies on the stand. We really did not get an adequate answer to that question from Mr. Cook. Jai Gohel asks Jim Cook about the discrepancy concerning the Highway 120 cell phone site that was discovered. That was the one where Jim Cook was off by 17 degrees in his mapping. Jim Cook had testified that he called AT&T concerning the azimuth for this cell phone site, but testified that he had taken no notes of this telephone conversation.

Jai Gohel now presses Jim Cook on his massive billing charges that have been made to Stanislaus County. Jai Gohel gets Cook to admit that he will probably exceed $400,000 for his work. I think it will be closer to $500.000 when his work on the CHP Officers is done. We now take a break.

When we get back, Marlisa Ferreira goes into redirect with Jim Cook. She is trying desperately to put lipstick on a pig. She goes over how Jim Cook has worked 4 years on this case. She gets Cook to testify that it is his biggest case ever. She states that Jim Cook has worked over 1800 hours on the case, and has gone over 750,000 pages of CDR’s. She tries to explain why Eula Keyes’ CDR’s were never analyzed, but runs into trouble from Judge Zuniga because of hearsay issues. Judge Zuniga, out of the presence of the jury, coaches Marlisa Ferreira in a way that she can get around this issue by stating that Jim Cook’s expertise would allow him to know that her records had already been expunged by Cricket cellular. Jai Gohel states that Marlisa Ferreira had plenty of time to get these CDR’s concerning Eula Keyes before they were expunged. We are going to have some more argument on this, but it is time for our lunchtime break. Make sure to listen to Marty Carlson’s podcast tonight to get the details of the afternoon session. I will be there tomorrow morning to report on what I see and hear.

Sincerely; William Thomas Jensen (Tom)