Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

S.D.Ind.: Officers created their own exigency by going to defendant's house in child porn case; good faith exception did not apply

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Year old information of a child pornography download was insufficient to give PC to believe that the child porn was in the house because officers knew defendant had been out of the country for most of that year. The government’s exigent circumstances argument is classic police-created exigency by their showing up to attempt to search. The fact that computer information is easily destroyed is not enough. Inevitable discovery does not apply because no prior information was included in the affidavit for search warrant to show that it was truly inevitable. Finally, the good faith exception cannot apply because the officers could not believe their actions were lawful. United States v. Downey, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62412 (S.D. Ind. July 21, 2009)*: On the facts shown here, the government's exigent circumstances argument presents a classic case of an exigency created by the officers themselves...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 26, 2009 (boomark / email).