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Man Faces Felony Charges After His Apple Watch Proves That He Lied To the Police (freep.com) 56

26-year-old Sean Samitt faked his own stabbing, and is now facing a felony charge and up to four years in prison, according to a Michigan police department -- which says it solved the case with help from his own Apple Watch. Samit reported he was attacked and stabbed in the abdomen by an unknown man in the parking lot at the Temple Kol Ami, where he worked as a cantorial soloist, which is a music director. He reported the crime on December 15, telling police that he was confronted about 7 p.m. as he was leaving work by a white male in his late 30s to early 40s... Police said officers searched the parking lot for a weapon, blood or any other piece of evidence but came back negative. K-9 officers were not able to locate a scent on the suspect. While searching Temple Kol Ami, detectives found bloody tissues in Samitt's office and the men's bathroom. They also located a knife in the kitchen area with blood on the tip of the blade.

Suspecting Samitt's wounds were self-inflicted, officers obtained surveillance footage from a house across the street and confirmed that no assault took place. Police said Samitt admitted to making up the attack and said he lost consciousness and accidentally stabbed himself while he was washing dishes at the synagogue. He said he lied about the incident because he was being harassed at work about his medical condition.

The second story also turned out to be fabricated, police said. Officers were able to obtain information from Samitt's cellphone health application that was synced to his Apple Watch, confirming he did not lose consciousness. Samitt then admitted to intentionally stabbing himself.

"We are very disturbed to hear of incidents like these. Not only is it a crime to file a false police report, but those who commit such acts take vital resources away from the folks who need help from law enforcement," said Carolyn Normandin, Regional Director of Anti Defamation League Michigan.
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Man Faces Felony Charges After His Apple Watch Proves That He Lied To the Police

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  • by Anachronous Coward ( 6177134 ) on Saturday January 04, 2020 @12:43PM (#59586208)
    Then his Apple watch stabbed him in the back. Double ouch.
    • by ddtmm ( 549094 )
      hahaha!
    • Maybe his Apple watch lied. Does it have ulterior motives?
    • Vince Foster's Apple Watch stabbed him in the back of the head twice. So did Seth Rich's and then the watch forgot to take the robbers. Word is Jeffery Epstein's Apple Watch malfunctioned for four hours as well.

      So much for safety in a walled garden.

      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        The difference between Foster and Epstein is that we don't know who killed Epstein. I don't think it was the obvious, but instead connected to his apparent laundering of $billions.

        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          Maybe there is a similarity in those cases. What involvement is the government of Israel in all this, why are they yet again trying to get the mouth pieces in other countries to push Christian based anti-Semitism. Did they just lose out big on their opportunities to extort obedience in western politics and are not pushing the anti-Semitism bullshit.

          Yeah, every one has kind of noticed how much the Israel government is corruptly controlling the US government, getting the US government to act against the inter

    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      Then his Apple watch stabbed him in the back. Double ouch.

      I'd give you the Funny mod if I ever could.

      I was actually looking for some joke about "You can't force a spouse or iWatch to testify against <someone>".

      Also wondering if they had to get a search warrant...

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I'm waiting for watch, fitbit, or phone recordings of pulse rates to prove that someone didn't have sex when the "victim" claims they did. The frequency of false rape allegations has grown and is now 41%, according to NIH, at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov] .

  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Saturday January 04, 2020 @01:37PM (#59586336)

    I read the story, but they didn't explain how from the Health app / Apple Watch data they determined he never lost consciousness...

    Looking at my own app, I can't really see how you could make that determination. I suppose you could say the fall monitor never activated, but if you were losing blood slowly you might well just sink to the floor and never activate it.

    Maybe heart rate?

    Really curious as to what they could pull from the Health app to determine this...

    • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Saturday January 04, 2020 @02:16PM (#59586424)
      They need not have pulled any such facts at all. All they need to is interrogate the witness and say something like, "We've got data from your watch that shows you never lost consciousness on the evening of . . . blah, blah, blah. Is it correct that you did, in fact, not lose consciousness?"

      Most people aren't aware that the police can flat out lie to them about just about anything they want during questioning. You'll even see innocent people confess to things that they didn't do just because the police have been hounding them for hours and they're more terrified of being accused of lying by the police in front of them than they are of the consequences of confessing to any statements that the police give them at some point in the future.

      So all the police need is some hunch (correct or not) to construct a narrative of events that they can get you to agree to, and at that point they don't need anything more. A signed confession by a suspect is all the prosecution needs and the defense knows that not only is it an uphill battle to prove that the police couldn't have used the data to prove what they claimed, because the police just need to claim that their interpretation at the time led them to that conclusion, even if it later turned out that their conclusion was incorrect. At that point you're going to be found guilty and unless some evidence exists to later exonerate you because someone else legitimately committed the crime that you were accused of and found guilty of there's not a lot of recourse for you.

      Don't talk to the police. [youtube.com] I'd say not to make up fake crimes for whatever reason that are going to result in the police wanting to talk to you in the first place, but I'd like to think that's the sort of common sense that really doesn't need explanation from a lawyer.
      • I'd like to think that's the sort of common sense that really doesn't need explanation from a lawyer.

        The belief that there are things you can say that don't first require an explanation from a lawyer is exactly the mistake that all these people made. That belief is all that stands in the way of opening your big mouth first, or asking for a lawyer.

        • I'd like to think that's the sort of common sense that really doesn't need explanation from a lawyer.

          The belief that there are things you can say that don't first require an explanation from a lawyer is exactly the mistake that all these people made.

          The GP wasn't talking about things you can say... he was saying that it ought to be common sense that you shouldn't lie to cops, inventing crimes that never happened. Keeping your mouth shut would obviously prevent you from making a false report. So would telling the truth. I can see where people might foolishly believe that telling the truth is okay, but everyone knows that making false reports and otherwise lying to investigators is a mistake. No lawyer necessary to know that.

          • That's your mistake. You think you can tell if you're lying to the cops or not, without even having had a lawyer there to check and tell you if you lied.

            Now you're at risk of further charges when you also deny that you lied earlier. It doesn't matter if you didn't understand how your words were being twisted when you said it, the jury isn't there to hear that.

            You might not even remember saying the thing that sent you to prison. But don't worry, the cop "remembered."

    • I agree - plus, a physician's analysis would be necessary to confirm that the data collected in the app accurately predicted continuous consciousness. Most likely the data from the health app was inconsistent with his story. He would have experienced a significantly elevated heart rate which may not have been recorded.

    • by dirk ( 87083 )

      My guess is the fall detector since he said he stabbed himself when he passed out. Passing out also may coincide with something like a drop in blood pressure or the like, which the app may indicate.

    • by nadass ( 3963991 )
      There are many sensors in these smart devices -- everything from sleep tracking to fall detection to heart rate monitoring. Regardless of the combination of data sets collected, the concept of losing consciousness is not one of physical vertical drop (fall detection) but rather heart and O2 rate monitors (decrease in pulse strength and overall fluid movement). In the future, fluid composition in the arteries can also be analyzed (like glucose and white blood cell counts).
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Really curious as to what they could pull from the Health app to determine this...

      The accelerometers track motion and orientation. They probably determined he was upright and moving around around the time of the incident, which is something you don't do when unconscious...

    • Im with you on this one. The iwatch is so unreliable i dont think it should be used as evidence.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Accelerometers? Maybe it shows her was moving the whole time.

  • They found bloody tissues and a bloody knife in his drawer for crying out loud!
    After which he admitted it.
    I stopped reading there, and the iWatch hasn't even been mentioned yet.

    Seriously, I'd declare this a new /. low, but I don't think there's any more space at the core of the Earth!

    • We've learned it's hard to escape the reach of technology. e.g. house across street conveniently wired with cameras.

    • They found bloody tissues and a bloody knife in his drawer for crying out loud! After which he admitted it. I stopped reading there, and the iWatch hasn't even been mentioned yet.

      You stopped reading too soon. He admitted accidentally stabbing himself when he lost consciousness. The Apple Watch and associated health app proved that this, too, was a lie, by showing that he never lost consciousness. He then finally admitted to intentionally stabbing himself.

    • I stopped reading there, and the iWatch hasn't even been mentioned yet.

      It's a shame. You literally missed half of the story.

      And then you decided to post garbage anyway like you always do.

  • Amazing (Score:1, Troll)

    by p51d007 ( 656414 )
    Jewish people fake attacks, moslems fake attacks, LGBTQ fake attacks and where does it get us? Walling off each other into groups, instead of becoming AMERICANS.
  • by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Saturday January 04, 2020 @01:52PM (#59586378) Journal
    A harsh stare and let him go, with no penalties.
  • Big A.I. brother is here. All we need now is the exterminator drones.
  • by Vandil X ( 636030 ) on Saturday January 04, 2020 @03:46PM (#59586662)
    Don't regard anything you read or watch as the truth until it is verified. There's a lot of fake/manufactured stuff out there trying to manipulate you and your overall thought process.
  • "He said he lied about the incident because he was being harassed at work about his medical condition."

    I don't think being a stupid dumbfuck qualifies as a medical condition...

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • officers obtained surveillance footage from a house across the street

    "Ring [wikipedia.org], Ring [wikipedia.org]"?

"And remember: Evil will always prevail, because Good is dumb." -- Spaceballs

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