Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Criminal Law

: Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Is this why we cannot have cellphones inside the courthouse?

By Tom Lincoln

Assistant U.S. Attorneys are allowed to have their cellphones inside the courtroom (under a court-created "law-enforcement duties" exception to the general ban), and I can only imagine that agents are allowed to do so as well. Up until now I always thought that it had something to do with one of two matters: Court security Judges either not wanting to hear a phone ring in the middle of a proceeding or in the lobby, or simply not wanting someone calling a radio station to have the court proceedings broadcast over the airwaves. Well here is a new one I had not thought of. It appears that there was a rumor in some courthouse that someone from inside the courtroom was sending text messages (either using a blackberry or a cellphone) to a sequestered witness regarding testimony inside the courtroom...continue to full post

Full post as published by Puerto Rico Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on May 07, 2005 (boomark / email).