Judge nixes Meta's attempts to quash star witness, key evidence out of upcoming child-safety trial

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Set us as preferred California can keep a star witness and introduce key evidence during opening statements in its case against Meta, a federal judge has ruled, dealing a blow to the tech titan on the eve of the landmark trial.In a brief order Sunday morning, California Northern District Chief Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers formally resolved two key pretrial disputes, handing a pair of procedural victories to the multistate coalition of attorneys general suing the social media giant over claims it designed its products to addict kids and misled the public about their safety.

The states can call whistleblower Arturo Béjar to the stand despite Meta’s claims that he allowed Signal chats with other insiders to auto-delete in defiance of orders to retain them — an issue the judge called a “Hail Mary” by the defense.“Ultimately, it is obvious that this motion falls into the category of a ‘Hail Mary’ attempt to eliminate a strong witness for the plaintiffs,” Gonzalez Rogers wrote.

“The attempt fails.” The team of attorneys general can also show jurors select evidence to support those claims at opening statements on Tuesday, weeks before most of it enters the record through witness testimony, Gonzalez Rogers ruled.The dual decision is the latest legal blow to the company, which fought hard to keep the blockbuster suit from reaching a jury and has maneuvered aggressively to restrict what can be introduced as evidence at the trial.

“Many of the identified documents present one or more genuine admissibility disputes, including unresolved hearsay-within-hearsay issues, contested business records arguments, scope-of-employment challenges, Section 230 issues, prejudice concerns, and foundation objections,” Meta’s attorneys wrote in opposition to the move.The states’ case is the first of thousands of federal act...