20250124_C365531_49_365531.Opn.Pdf

CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 24, 2025
Docket20250124
StatusUnpublished

This text of 20250124_C365531_49_365531.Opn.Pdf (20250124_C365531_49_365531.Opn.Pdf) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
20250124_C365531_49_365531.Opn.Pdf, (Mich. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

STATE OF MICHIGAN

COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, FOR PUBLICATION January 24, 2025 Plaintiff-Appellee, 9:46 AM

v No. 365531 Calhoun Circuit Court SHANNON MARIE DINGEE, LC No. 2021-002883-FH

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: GADOLA, C.J., and K. F. KELLY and REDFORD, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant appeals by right her jury-trial conviction of unlawfully posting a message, MCL 750.411s. The trial court sentenced defendant to serve 90 days in jail with the sentence suspended and to serve 3 years on probation. Finding no errors warranting reversal, we affirm.

I. BASIC FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This case has its origins with two young adults—SK and the victim—who were close friends in high school and for a time after high school. Defendant is SK’s mother. The victim contacted defendant after a party in May 2020 and asked defendant for help with a matter involving SK. Specifically, the victim accused SK of having engaged in sexual misconduct with her while she was at the party. Defendant subsequently defended her son and contested the victim’s version of events.

In June 2020, the victim confronted SK at another party and loudly and repeatedly yelled that he had raped her. According to SK, a crowd of people chased him back to his friend’s car, and his friend drove him away. Approximately two months later, a former girlfriend contacted SK and arranged to meet with him at night in a secluded park. The former girlfriend allegedly lured SK to the park so that a group could ambush him. At this arranged meeting, SK was attacked. Defendant blamed the victim for the attack on her son, even though there was no evidence that the victim planned, encouraged, or participated in it.

-1- Defendant created a website, titled “_ _ _ _ _ _ Lies.com,”1 through which she accused the victim of lying. On that website, defendant attacked the victim’s reputation and posted images of the victim that included details that would allow others to identify the victim’s social media accounts. Defendant also posted what she deemed to be evidence that the victim fabricated her claim against SK. Defendant asserted that the victim was responsible for the attack on her son and posted images of his injuries. In addition to the website, defendant posted numerous messages and comments on Facebook targeting the victim and referring people to the website she had created. She also eventually made TikTok videos about the victim.

After the victim began receiving numerous threats and comments from third parties on her social media accounts, the victim was forced to close the accounts. She testified that she also quit school and work, and she moved back home for her own safety. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department conducted an investigation and on the basis of the evidence collected, the prosecutor charged defendant with one count of unlawfully posting a message in violation of MCL 750.411s. The jury found defendant guilty, and the trial court sentenced her as noted. This appeal followed.

II. BUSINESS RECORDS

A. STANDARD OF REVIEW

This Court reviews a trial court’s decision to admit evidence for an abuse of discretion. People v Roper, 286 Mich App 77, 90; 777 NW2d 483 (2009). A trial court abuses its discretion when its decision falls outside the range of reasonable outcomes. People v Clark, 330 Mich App 392, 432; 948 NW2d 604 (2019). This Court reviews de novo whether the trial court properly interpreted and applied the rules of evidence. People v McFarlane, 325 Mich App 507, 517; 926 NW2d 339 (2018). A trial court necessarily abuses its discretion when it admits evidence that was inadmissible as a matter of law. Roper, 286 Mich App at 91.

B. ANALYSIS

Defendant first argues that the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed the prosecutor to admit business records produced by Facebook. We disagree.

In the trial court, defendant repeatedly objected to introduction of statements that appeared in records supplied by Facebook for two accounts associated with defendant and one account associated with the victim. Defendant objected on the ground that the Facebook data was inadmissible hearsay because it included statements by persons who were not present and without sufficient basis to establish a foundation for the admission of the records. Defendant also argued

1 The actual first name of the victim in this case is deleted, although in the website, the defendant included it.

-2- that the Facebook data was inadmissible because the prosecutor did not strictly comply with the notice requirement under MRE 902(11).2

On appeal, defendant only argues that the prosecutor had to strictly comply with the notice provisions stated under MRE 902(11) before the trial court could admit the records. Because the prosecutor did not send a formal written notice, she maintains that the trial court could not admit the records under MRE 803(6). The rules of evidence allow the admission of hearsay evidence compiled through regularly conducted activity under MRE 803(6)—the business-records exception to the hearsay rule. See People v Huyser, 221 Mich App 293, 296-297; 561 NW2d 481 (1997).

Ordinarily, for a record to be admissible under this exception, the record must be authenticated by a custodian of the records. See People v Fackelman, 489 Mich 515, 536 n 15; 802 NW2d 552 (2011). Under MRE 902, “[e]xtrinsic evidence of authenticity as a condition precedent to admissibility is not required with respect” to certain types of documents. In relevant part, extrinsic evidence is not required to authenticate a record admissible under MRE 803(6) if the record was accompanied by a written declaration under oath by a qualified person certifying that:

(A) The record was made at or near the time of the occurrence of the matters set forth by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge of those matters;

(B) The record was kept in the course of the regularly conducted business activity; and

(C) It was the regular practice of the business activity to make the record.

A party intending to offer a record into evidence under this paragraph must provide written notice of that intention to all adverse parties, and must make the record and declaration available for inspection sufficiently in advance of their offer into evidence to provide an adverse party with a fair opportunity to challenge them. [MRE 902(11).]

In this case, the prosecutor obtained more than 200,000 pages of records from Facebook detailing the activities of the Facebook accounts at issue, which included records of the postings to the accounts with an identifier for the posts. The only dispute is over whether the prosecutor provided the notice required under the last paragraph of MRE 902(11).

The prosecutor listed the Facebook records as evidence that she intended to admit in her notice of the evidence, but she did not specifically state that she intended to admit the evidence

2 The Supreme Court amended the Michigan Rules of Evidence on September 20, 2023, effective January 1, 2024. See ADM File No. 2021-10, 512 Mich lxiii (2023). In this opinion, we cite the version of the rules in effect at the time of trial.

-3- using MRE 902(11).

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