Accusatory Texts Are Inadmissible Hearsay in Oregon Court

Oregon Supreme Court determines that text messages sent by victim with the assistance of the police are non-admissible hearsay

State v. Schiller-Munneman, 2016 BL 210679, Ore., No. SC-S063526, 6/30/16.

   The Oregon Supreme Court found that text messages sent by a victim of sexual assault without a response by the defendant are inadmissible evidence under Oregon’s hearsay laws. After being assaulted, the victim, with the assistance of the local police, sent text messages to the defendant asking him several questions about the assault with the intention of having him confess or admit culpability. Instead, there was no response.

   The prosecution in the case wanted to draw attention to the lack of response by the defendant to support their case against him. The court, however, found that such evidence was impermissible under Oregon law because the sent messages were not questions, but statements within the context of the situation. Additionally, the court refused to admit the texts under the “adoptive admission” exception under the hearsay rule, which would allow a no-response to be adopted as the defendant’s manifestation of his agreement to the truth of the statement. The court declined to accept this argument as well, stating the rule cannot apply because several contradictory inferences can be reasonably made from the silence.

   In addition, the court refused to answer whether the Fifth Amendment blocks prosecutors from commenting on an accused’s pre-arrest and pre-Miranda right to remain silent.

https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/State_v_SchillerMunneman_No_SC_S063526_2016_BL_210679_Or_June_30_?1467833090