8:30am-9:00am: Registration

9:00am-9:10am: Introduction & Welcome Remarks (Jerome D. Greco)

9:10am-10:10am: Private Until Presumed Guilty: Surveillance in a Post-Dobbs World (Diane Akerman & Allison Young)

10:10am-11:05am: They’re Listening: A Quick Tour of Big Data’s Collison with Jail Surveillance (Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez)

11:05am-11:15am: Break

11:15am-12:30pm: “He Says There Are Messages On His Phone”: Building a Narrative Through Digital Investigation (Diane Akerman, Shane Ferro, Chris Pelletier, & Brandon Reim)

12:30pm-1:45pm: Lunch

1:45pm-2:45pm: Unfounded Suspicion: Challenging the Science of ShotSpotter (Tania Brief, Benjamin Burger, & Brendan Max)

2:45pm-3:40pm: Not Caught on Camera: Video Alterations and Metadata (Brian Cummings)

3:40pm-3:50pm: Break

3:50pm-4:45pm: Handling Digital Contraband: Ethical and Practical Considerations (Jerome D. Greco)

4:45pm-4:55pm: Concluding Remarks (Jerome D. Greco)

Diane Akerman is a Staff Attorney in the Digital Forensics Unit of the Legal Aid Society. Diane consults with attorneys and investigators on digital forensic evidence in both criminal and civil matters. Her work involves both uncovering and investigating the technologies themselves, developing litigation strategies, and advocating for policy changes. Diane has litigated numerous Freedom of Information Law requests regarding surveillance technology, including uncovering the use of controversial facial recognition technology by the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office. She has created numerous training programs on the use of Body Worn Camera by both the NYPD and other state and city law enforcement agencies. Prior to joining the Digital Forensics Unit, Diane was a Staff Attorney in the Queens and Manhattan trial offices.

Tania Brief is a senior staff attorney in the Innocence Project’s Strategic Litigation Department, where she focuses on strategies to address the misapplication of forensic sciences as a leading cause of wrongful conviction. Prior to joining the Innocence Project, Tania worked for nine years at The Bronx Defenders, where she represented clients charged with crimes in all stages of litigation. She was also a member of the Forensic Practice Group, where she consulted with attorneys and conducted trainings on digital forensics. Before working at The Bronx Defenders, Tania served as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Pauley III, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Tania graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a student attorney in the D.C. Law Students in Court clinic, representing low-income clients in landlord-tenant court. She received her B.A. from Yale University.

Benjamin Burger is a Staff Attorney in the Digital Forensics Unit of the Legal Aid Society. Benjamin advises attorneys on digital forensics and surveillance issues, including automatic license plate readers, the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, and eavesdropping warrants. He has also created numerous training programs on topics like digital searches at the border, authentication of digital evidence, and digital device search warrants. Recently, Benjamin has litigated Freedom of Information Law requests relating to law enforcement surveillance capabilities in state trial and appellate courts. Prior to joining the Digital Forensics Unit, Benjamin was a Staff Attorney in the Bronx Criminal Defense Practice where he represented thousands of clients on misdemeanor and felony matters.

Brian Cummings is a Staff Attorney in the New York State Defenders Association’s Discovery and Forensic Support Unit. He focuses on evidence obtained from mobile phones, wireless networks, and video cameras. Previously, he worked as an attorney and investigator in the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office in Rochester, NY. He holds CCO, CCPA, and CCME certifications from Cellebrite for mobile device forensics and is certified by the Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Video Association as a Forensic Video Technician. He received his J.D. and B.S. from SUNY Buffalo.

Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez is the Director of the Science & Surveillance Project at Brooklyn Defender Services in Brooklyn. In that role, Elizabeth is responsible for developing BDS’s litigation and advocacy strategy surrounding issues of data, science, and technology. She consults on cases involving complex forensic science and surveillance issues, trains the office in litigating and confronting forensic evidence and emerging surveillance techniques, spearheads affirmative impact litigation emanating from forensic and surveillance abuses, and coordinates policy and law reform efforts surrounding emerging forensic science and surveillance concerns. Elizabeth has served as a faculty member for the National Forensic Science College, an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law School, and a trainer and panelist at numerous local and national convenings on forensic science and surveillance issues. Before joining BDS, Elizabeth worked as a staff attorney in the trial division of the Public Defender Service (“PDS”) for the District of Columbia and an associate at Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, LLP, litigating wrongful conviction and civil rights cases in state and federal courts throughout the country.

Shane Ferro is a Staff Attorney at the Digital Forensics Unit, where she works on both litigation and policy work. She advises attorneys on how to best litigate issues related to digital evidence in their cases, including facial recognition, Shotspotter, cell site location information, social media evidence, and cell phone evidence. She also is a member of the Privacy NY coalition and lobbies the city and state governments on anti-surveillance legislation on behalf of the Legal Aid Society. She was previously a public defender with Queens Defenders in New York, where she litigated People ex rel. Ferro v. Brann, one of the first New York appellate cases to hold prosecutors to their new obligations under the 2020 New York discovery reform. She graduated from Columbia Law School, and was previously an economics journalist at multiple national media outlets.

Jerome D. Greco is the Supervising Attorney of The Legal Aid Society’s Digital Forensics Unit. Over the past seven years, he has expanded the Unit from four analysts and one lab to five analysts, four staff attorneys, one supervising attorney, one paralegal, and two labs. Jerome works closely with attorneys and investigators on issues involving electronic surveillance technology, cell phone extractions, location tracking, and facial recognition, among other fields. In the last five years, he has presented over seventy digital forensics and electronic surveillance related CLEs and trainings. Prior to joining the Digital Forensics Unit, Jerome worked as a trial attorney in the Society’s Staten Island and Manhattan criminal defense offices from 2011 to 2016. In addition to his work with technology, Jerome is experienced in litigating freedom of information requests and is an advocate for government transparency.

Brendan Max is the Chief of the Forensic Science Division of the Cook County Public Defender Office. Brendan’s work focuses on the investigation and litigation of flawed forensic evidence. Brendan has successfully challenged numerous cases involving flawed fingerprint evidence and published a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Forensic Identification about his experience in taking a national fingerprint examiner proficiency test. More recently, Brendan has focused on challenging flawed ShotSpotter evidence and secured the dismissal of murder charges against Michael Williams after raising fundamental questions about the reliability of the ShotSpotter forensic method. Since that case, Brendan has successfully challenged ShotSpotter evidence in 10 additional cases. Brendan has also authored a law review article about the unreliability of ShotSpotter evidence entitled “ShotSpotter’s Black-Box Gunshot Detection Method: Untested and Unvetted Tech Flourishes in the Criminal Justice System,” which will be published in June in the Stanford Technology Law Review.

Christopher Pelletier is an Analyst in the Digital Forensics Unit of the Legal Aid Society. He graduated from Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, New Jersey with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. Chris has been certified as a Certified Computer Examiner (CCE) by the International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners (ISFCE) and is also a current Cellebrite Certified Mobile Examiner (CCME). He has been helping Legal Aid Society clients with their digital data since mid-2019.

Brandon Reim is a Senior Analyst in the Digital Forensics Unit of the Legal Aid Society. He graduated from Bloomsburg University with a Bachelors of Science in Digital Forensics. He also holds numerous certifications including Cellebrite Certified Mobile Examiner (CCME) and Encase Certified Examiner (ENCE). Brandon works on Mobile Devices with an emphasis on broken and damaged devices.

Allison Young is an Analyst in the Digital Forensics Unit of the Legal Aid Society. Allison has expertise in computer, mobile, and cloud account preservation and analysis. She is a current Cellebrite Certified Mobile Examiner and holds a Master’s degree in Digital Forensics from the University of Central Florida. She has examined hundreds of computers and cell phones during her career. Allison enjoys working with new devices and technology – as well as old devices that may require TLC to handle.