Opinion ID: 1755457
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Alltel Communications Records

Text: At trial, Susie Mason, a records custodian for Alltel Communications (Alltel), described the recordkeeping process for wireless telephones. Mason explained that when a customer first subscribes to a wireless service, personal information is obtained from the customer. That information is retained permanently. Once service is established, a telephone number is assigned to that particular account and housed in a centralized billing system. For billing purposes, data are retained for each account regarding calls that are received and placed. Mason testified that Alltel often received requests for such data pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or search warrants. Mason's primary duty was handling those requests. To do so, she typically queried either by name or telephone number to retrieve the name of the account holder, telephone number, billing address, and sometimes a contact telephone number. That information was printed out. Mason also described the process by which cellular telephone calls are made. Mason explained that a cellular telephone maintains regular contact with cellular towers. The telephone is identified by a serial number to the cellular site. When a call is placed from a telephone, [o]nce you place the call, it verifies who you are, go[es] ahead and place[s] the call for you. That call is automatically registered. It lets us know what time you placed the call, what location you were in when you placed the call. As you're traveling around town, it also keeps a record of the various cell sites as you're driving or wherever you are. And the call, it lets us know when you end the call, from start to finish. Once a call is placed or received, those data are kept in the switch, the central computer system. Exhibits 86 and 87 at trial were records for particular Alltel telephone numbers. The telephone number referenced in exhibit 86 belonged to Michael Morris, but Whitlock identified exhibit 86 as being the record for the cellular telephone that he used, explaining that Morris was his father. Exhibit 87 contained subscriber information for a telephone owned by Sarah Ricker, but Ricker testified that she had given the telephone to her daughter's father, Lockett, and the billing address for the telephone was Lockett's brother's house. Mason testified that the records were made or transmitted by a system with knowledge of the information and were made at or near the time the events appearing in them took place, that it was the regular practice of Alltel to make such a record, that the activity was continuous and for business purposes, and that the records were kept in the regular course of conducted business activity. The defendant objected on the bases of foundation and hearsay, but the objection was overruled and the exhibits were admitted.