GPS Tracking

When the wife of Gerald Ford placed a Tracking Key, a GPS tracking system manufactured by LandAirSea Systems, into her husband’s truck to see if infidelity loomed in her marriage, no one could have ever expected the events that were to follow. The GPS tracking system exhibited its various applications when it transformed from a tool to monitor possible extramarital affairs to become the center piece of evidence in a murder trial.

Initially charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, many questions were unanswered when Gerald Ford gave his statement about the events that surrounded his role in the death of a 12 year-old girl. According to Ford, he accidentally fatally wounded the girl, who was on her first day of the job as a babysitter, with his truck when he was making a “K turn”. He maintains that he was in the remote location to show the girl some horses and accidentally hit her with his vehicle in the darkness. Ford’s story could not be corroborated since there were no eye witnesses at the scene of the crime. That is until the GPS tracking system was discovered by authorities and was able to tell its own, and much different version of the accounts that occurred that late night in July, 2007. What was initially a reckless endangerment charge quickly turned into a murder charge when the evidence provided by the GPS tracking system painted a much more horrific account of that night’s events.

The GPS tracking system, now the core piece of evidence, not only provided data that contradicted the man’s version of the incident by showing the girl was hit 44 feet off the road, implying that the girl tried to escape from him, but it also showed that she was taken to an abandon house for approximately 3 hours before the fatal event. 

Currently, the trial is going through a short delay as the defense reviews additional data recorded by the Tracking Key as they feverously attempt to discredit the GPS tracking system. This very unique case has caught the media by storm, getting attention from mainstream news reporting agencies to the Discovery Channel.

LandAirSea Systems’ Vice President Steve Moehling will be the first person called to testify as this extraordinary technology, known as GPS tracking, makes it presence felt not only in the daily lives of employers monitoring mobile assets, or concerned parent’s of teens, but now in the court of law.

Murder trial is delayed

By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau

NORWICH _ In Chenango County Court on Wednesday, the murder trial of George Ford Jr. was adjourned until Monday to give the defense time to study new GPS evidence.

As Wednesday’s session opened, Ford’s attorney, Randel Scharf of Cooperstown, said he had just been given four maps created by DEC Forester James Prunoske of Sherburne. The maps purport to show where Ford, 43, drove on July 7 and July 8, 2007, when he was with Shyanne Somers, a 12-year-old baby sitter on her first assignment.

In Ford’s truck was a tracking device his wife, Cindy, had hidden there because she suspected he was having an affair. Prunoske created maps using information generated by the global positioning system unit.

Scharf said he needed these maps to prepare his defense and called their untimely disclosure “a massive discovery violation.”

Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride said he had not known Prunoske created the maps or would have shared them earlier with Scharf.

Scharf asked that the trial be postponed until 9 a.m. Monday to give him time to consult an expert. McBride proposed continuing Wednesday and allowing witnesses to be recalled later, if Scharf wanted to, after studying the maps.

Broome County Judge Joseph F. Cawley, who is presiding in the case, called both attorneys into his office, and when they emerged, they agreed the trial should be adjourned until Monday.

“We’re adjourning without prejudice to either side,” McBride told reporters. “Because this is a bench trial, there’s really no problem doing that.”

When the trial resumes at 9 a.m. Monday, his first witness will be Stephen Moehling of San Diego. He is vice president for sales at Land Air Sea, the company that sold the GPS tracking device to Cindy Ford, McBride said.

“I want him to describe how it works and what it’s capable of,” he said.

Moehling, who testified to the grand jury that indicted Ford, told The Daily Star last month the GPS in Ford’s truck is accurate and similar to tracking units used by government agencies.

And McBride has said the GPS data, generated every second, contradict Ford’s statements and show he ran Shyanne down as she tried to get away from him.

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Scharf said he will challenge the accuracy of the geographic coordinates generated by the unit.

“The clock is a world clock and it’s extremely accurate,” but the mapping coordinates are approximate and can be off significantly, he said.

“In this case, they say the spot where Shyanne was hit is 44 feet off the road,” he said.

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Tags: Chenango, GPS Tracking, Murder Case

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