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W.D.Pa.: Officers' false statement they were investigating identity theft to get access to defendant's computer in child porn investigation voided search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officers had information that defendant had received child porn, and they used a ruse that he was the victim of identity theft to get access to his computer. While they were looking at his computer with him there, the officers encountered a locked file, and he gave up the password. When a CP image was seen, he asked whether that was illegal to possess, and the officers said they weren't looking for that, which was false. The motion to suppress was granted. United States v. Parson, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15125 (W.D. Pa. February 25, 2009): The government claims that the identity theft introduction is defensible in that it was literally truthful and accurate. The Court disagrees, and disapproves of this "literal truth" defense. Given the function and purpose of verbally expressed language, a communicative phrase such as that uttered by Agent Stitzel simply cannot be defined absent its context...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 27, 2009 (boomark / email).