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CA11: Officer did not exceed consent to search computer by looking in a different game program

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The search of defendant’s computer did not exceed the consent. The mouse wasn’t working properly, and the had to scroll through programs and clicked on a game program and stumbled upon child pornography. The officer did not even click on programs that had more suggestive names. United States v. Whaley, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 3260 (11th Cir. February 16, 2011) (unpublished)*: In this case, Whaley permitted Schoenfeld to use his computer, but only for the limited purpose of viewing the flight simulator program. We discern no clear error in the magistrate’s finding that Schoenfeld was, in fact, searching for the flight simulator when he opened the “auto racing 13” icon. Because the laptop’s mouse pad was not working, Schoenfeld had to scroll through the icons one by one...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 21, 2011 (boomark / email).