PA Appeal Court Rules Text Messages Inadmissible

Amy N. Koch appealed her July 20, 2010 sentence of 23 months probation following her conviction as an accomplice for possession with intent to deliver (“PWID”) (marijuana) and possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) as an accomplice.

Ms. Koch appealed on the grounds that the Court admitted text messages from her cell phone as evidence. She contends the text messages were hearsay and inadmissible.

The evidence revealed the following course of events.

• An informant told police that Norman Koch, a/k/a Matt Koch, was selling cocaine and that he resided with his sister, Amy Koch (the Appellant), and Dallas Conrad, Amy's "paramour".
  
• Police conducted 2 trash pulls at Amy's residence. Those yielded 2 baggies, 1 containing cocaine residue, the other marijuana residue.
  
• Detectives searched Ms. Koch's residence on found evidence of drugs. They also seized 2 cell phones, one identified as hers and the other identified as her brother's.
  
• Text messages were transcribed. Prosecutor's offered testimony and a transcript of what they described as 13 drug-related text messages.
  
• Ms. Koch's attorneys objected due to authenticity and hearsay. Objections were overruled.

Ms. Koch appealed and the Pennsylvania Superior Court found there was no showing that the defendant wrote the 13 drug-related text messages and they were inadmissible hearsay.