MA: Reasonable delay in finishing search of cell phone with SW is permissible

Delay in searching a cell phone with a warrant is governed by the rules of searching computers with warrants, and a reasonable delay doesn’t void the search. Commonwealth v. Ericson, 85 Mass. App. Ct. 326 (May 23, 2014):

Consistently with the reasoning of Kaupp, we conclude that, if police have obtained a warrant to search and seize evidence from a cell phone in their custody, they must attempt but need not complete a forensic examination of the device within seven days of the warrant’s issuance. The reason for the rule prescribing execution of a warrant within seven days is that “[t]he longer the police wait before executing the warrant … the more likely it is that the situation will change so that the facts which supported the magistrate’s determination of probable cause will no longer exist.” Commonwealth v. Cromer, 365 Mass. 519, 524, 313 N.E.2d 557 (1974). Where, as here, the cell phone rests in the custody of the police and not of the suspect, the information (content of the cell phone) supporting the probable cause determination is less likely to change. We conclude that a promptly begun but protracted forensic examination of a cell phone, by itself, does not invalidate an otherwise valid search.