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E.D. Mo.: SI of cell phone contents was lawful

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Seizure and search incident of cell phones and their contents from a car with $85,000 hidden in the gas tank were lawful. United States v. Monson-Perez, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20575 (E.D. Mo. January 29, 2010): In United States v. James, 2008 WL 1925032 at *3-9 (E.D.Mo., April 29, 2008) the court held that "because probable cause existed to believe that evidence of a crime would be found in the cell phone call records and address book, the automobile exception allows the search of the cell phone just as it allows a search of other closed containers found in vehicles." See also United States v. Fierros-Alvarez, 2008 WL 1826188 (D.Kan., April 23, 2008) (automobile exception justified search of cell phone found in vehicle). Therefore, the seizure of the cell phones and the extraction of data from them was legal...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 10, 2010 (boomark / email).