MD: Withdrawal of consent to computer search extended to copy of hard drive police made

“[D]efendant had reasonable expectation of privacy in data stored on his laptop’s hard drive, whether data was electronically stored on his hard drive or government’s copy of hard drive made with defendant’s consent. Defendant’s reasonable expectation of privacy was not eliminated by government’s copying of hard drive because no data was exposed prior to his withdrawal of consent. Supreme Court held that, under circumstances of defendant’s consent, reasonable person would not think that government could examine data on copy after withdrawal of consent when no examination occurred prior to withdrawal. Government’s examination of data after defendant withdrew consent was search, which was unreasonable because government lacked any authority to conduct search, by warrant or exception to warrant requirement.” State v. McDonnell, 2023 Md. LEXIS 301 (July 7, 2023). See Reason: Withdrawal of Consent to Search Computers Also Blocks Searches of Digital Copies, Court Holds by Orin Kerr.

Defendant was driving what appeared to be a fleet commercial truck for a cable installer, but everything seemed off for winter weather. “As noted above, several details indicated to Trooper Mills that the truck was likely a staged commercial vehicle. The totality of the circumstances support Trooper Mills’s reasonable suspicion of criminal activity because he was ‘able to point to specific and articulable facts’ from the start of the stop to support a ‘rational inference[]’ of narcotic trafficking. Terry, 392 U.S. at 21. Thus, Trooper Mills’s EPIC search was appropriate, as was his question to Grajeda-Sanchez about Grajeda-Sanchez’s job and his decision to look underneath the truck bed. Accordingly, the traffic stop was lawfully extended.” United States v. Grajeda-Sanchez, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117502 (D. Minn. July 10, 2023).*