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W.D.Pa.: Search of computer by consent was a ruse, and it violated scope of consent

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Consent to search a computer for evidence of that defendant was a victim of identity theft was a ruse to look at his hard drive for child pornography. The search thus exceeded the consent. United States v. Richardson, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88242 (W.D. Pa. October 31, 2008): Quite simply, the agents in the case sub judice made an assumption that the Defendant's computers would contain child pornography because the evidence from Operation Emissary indicated that the Defendant made two failed attempts to access "ILLEGAL.CP". Their assumption proved correct, but only after consent to search the computers was obtained in order to look for evidence of unspecified "['illegal'] credit card activity over the Internet", not images of child pornography or any images for that matter...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on November 04, 2008 (boomark / email).