Does deleting metadata from a PDF constitute tampering with evidence?
What if the lawyer who is submitting the file claims they just received it the day of the hearing – even though they had 63 days from the date the Level 3 grievance was filed?
Narrative
My Level 3 hearing was set for Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
On Monday, April 15, 2024 – The DAY BEFORE the hearing – at 11:06am, FWISD Legal Services notified me that they had commissioned an outside law firm to investigate my claims.
Later that same day, at 3:49pm, FWISD Legal Services sent me a copy of the report.
Let’s stop right here for a moment. The FWISD Board Policy Manual section FNG Local clearly states that the administration MUST provide notice of the nature of the evidence at least three days before the hearing.
Which means FWISD Legal Services had already violated FWISD Policy.
But it gets better.
On April 16, 2024 at 12:12pm – THE DAY OF THE HEARING – FWISD Legal Services sent me three PDFs of additional evidence they claimed had just been received.
!!!THE METADATA IN ALL 3 FILES WAS MISSING!!!
How convenient.
Let me paraphrase the message I think the lawyers and FWISD are sending…
“Hey, we’ve had 63 days to prepare for this hearing, but we waited 42 days before commissioning a hackjob investigation and we just received these files at the last minute in complete violation of our own policy. Oh, by the way, the metadata showing when the files were actually created, modified, etc is accidentally missing. What part of, ‘We are lawyers. We cannot act in the best interest of your children, and we must use every tactic possible to win for our client.’ is difficult for you to understand?”
My answer is clear: deleting metadata is tampering with evidence.
What do you think?