A New Jersey state appellate court has ruled that information from a GPS tracking device placed in the vehicle of a suspect can be not admitted as evidence during a trial unless there is expert testimony on the information's accuracy. Investigators from the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office placed a GPS unit in a vehicle in 2005 to track Eric Pittman in a seven-month undercover drug investigation.
The prosecution sought to have the GPS information admitted into Pittman's trial. But the information was challenged by Pittman's lawyer, Steven Altman, who argued more expert testimony needed to be heard about the reliability of the GPS unit and if investigators had used the device correctly.
The prosecution had initially argued that expert testimony was not needed because of the general acceptance of GPS technology, but Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman said a representative of the GPS's unit manufacturer, Orion, should be called to testify about the device.Excerpted from mycentraljersey.com.
