Texting Statements Stay Suppressed in Maine Case

Maine’s highest court has upheld a lower-court decision to suppress a young woman’s statements that she was texting at the time of a late-night car crash that killed two of her friends.

Kristina Lowe has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and other charges in the January 2012 crash in West Paris. Her trial has been on hold pending the supreme judicial court decision.

Police say Lowe told them at a hospital that she was drunk and texting at the time of the crash.

Lowe’s attorney says she wasn’t drunk or texting, and that police should have read Lowe her Miranda rights after learning that her two friends had died.

In a unanimous decision Thursday, justices said Lowe’s texting statements are not admissible because she wasn’t read her rights.