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ME: Warrantless "preview search" of hard drive for child porn violated Fourth Amendment, but the warrant would have issued anyway

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant was found to have consented to seizure of the portable hard drive to his computer after police asked him about child pornography on it, based on reports from another having seen it when he showed him. The “preview search” of the computer without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment, but the search was permissible by inevitable discovery because of defendant’s admissions there was child pornography on the hard drive. The full forensic examination of the computer was with a warrant, and, excluding the preview search from the affidavit, the warrant would have been granted anyway. State v. Nadeau, 2010 ME 71, 2010 Me. LEXIS 74 (July 29, 2010)* (This case has a helpful analysis of applying the exclusionary rule or not under inevitable discovery, and the court finds that applying the exclusionary rule here would not advance Fourth Amendment interests...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 01, 2010 (boomark / email).