The defendant argued that the plaintiff and her mother fabricated this summary by researching online how a victim of sexual abuse would act in therapy and that the plaintiff’s mother had in fact written the statement of events. The defendant’s forensic expert examined the computer owned by the plaintiff’s mother, proffering evidence that it had been used to research TV shows and articles related to dealing with in-family abuse and concluded that the mother had written the summary herself.
DisputeSoft computer forensics expert G. Hunter Jones, an EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE), conducted an independent examination of the computer in question and found that the defendant’s computer forensics expert had identified only a small fraction of the computer’s total Internet history. A full report of the Internet history filled 1,604 pages and revealed that other members of the plaintiff’s family regularly used the computer for a variety of day-to-day tasks. At trial, Mr. Jones testified that, in light of these findings, there was no verifiable basis for concluding that the plaintiff’s mother must have written the summary in question.
The case was decided in favor of the plaintiff, and the jury awarded her $6.85 million in damages.
