A warrant for “illegal pictures” justifies a search of a laptop computer because “a laptop computer is as likely a place to find photographs as a photo album.” United States v. Pontefract, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78084 (W.D. La. October 1, 2008):<\/p>\n
Whether it was proper or not for the state court judge to issue the state search warrant, based on the information contained in the application and affidavits before her, is not an issue before this Court. What is<\/em> before this Court is the issue of whether the state search warrant was sufficiently particularized to include the laptop computer as an item to be searched and seized. This Court agrees with the magistrate judge that it was. This Court finds that, in today’s digital world, a laptop computer is as likely a place to find photographs as a photo album. Indeed, had the officers conducting the search located a photo album in the trailer from which photographs could not be removed without damaging or destroying the photo album or the photos themselves, seizure of the photo album and a subsequent search would have been permissible. United States v. Pontefract, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78084 (W.D. La. October 1, 2008):<\/p>\n
Moreover, defendant is not arguing the officers impermissibly searched, say, defendant’s email or financial information, which might also have been contained on the lap top files. Indeed, under the state search warrant, such a search would not have been permissible. Rather, the officers conducting the search were searching for photographs, and they accessed that portion of the defendant’s computer — the drives and\/or folders where such photographs were stored — in executing the warrant. Defendant has cited no statutory or jurisprudential authority for the contention that a warrant authorizing a search of a home or trailer for photographs of child pornography, otherwise supported by probable case, must distinguish between digital and paper photographs in order to satisfy the particularity requirement for the issuance of the warrant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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