E.D.Pa.: Cell phone can’t be seized on RS and exigency then wait four days to get a SW

“The question before this Court today is whether a police officer who conducts a Terry stop can seize the smartphone of a suspect without a warrant and hold it for four days before obtaining a warrant, where the suggested exigency of destruction of evidence is not supported by any particularized evidence as to the defendant from whom the property was seized. This Court is also called upon to answer whether the Government may obtain a warrant to search a cell phone based only on generalized allegations that criminals tend to carry their phones with them and have evidence on them, and whether the Government’s warrant for a cell phone can permit the search of all data created, without regard to the time the data was created or the likelihood of particular type of data to include evidence. This Court’s answer to all of these questions is an emphatic ‘no.’ The evidence obtained from the phone pursuant to the November 26, 2024 warrant is suppressed, as is any fruit of the poisonous tree.” United States v. Williams, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 259934 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 15, 2025).