CA11: Three year delay in searching 103 computers was not unreasonable

The government’s three year delay in searching all 103 computers seized in a Medicaid fraud investigation was not unreasonable. Also, a pre-search protocol was not required. United States v. Bradley, 644 F.3d 1213 n. 95 (11th Cir. 2011):

The Bradleys and Bio-Med claim that resulting searches of Bio-Med servers for data were unconstitutional because they occurred almost three years after the servers were originally seized. We find nothing in the record that would lead us to believe that the search procedure was unreasonably delayed, for any reason. See, e.g., United States v. Gerber, 994 F.2d 1556, 1558-59 (11th Cir. 1993) (approving a delayed search, even after expiration of the search warrant, because officers acted reasonably). We find no error in the district court’s rejection of this claim.

Furthermore, we reject outright the Bradleys’ and Bio-Med’s claim that the searches were unconstitutional because the agents failed to obtain pre-approval from the district court of a search protocol before conducting the searches. Cf. United States v. Khanani, 502 F.3d 1281, 1290-91 (11th Cir. 2007) (finding a wide-sweeping, keyword-based computer search reasonable where the defendants failed to “cite any binding case law that would lead us to conclude the procedures used in this case infringed defendants’ Fourth Amendment rights”).