Defendant\u2019s leaving his thumb drive in a common computer at work was a waiver of his expectation of privacy in it. His boss looked at the thumb drive and reviewed some folders finding child pornography. The boss\u2019s search was not a law enforcement search. United States v. Durdley, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35422 (N.D. Fla. March 11, 2010):<\/p>\n
Additionally, the subsequent reviews of the thumb drive by police detectives did not exceed the scope of the private review conducted by Mr. Johnson. In United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984), and its predecessor, Walter v. United States, 447 U.S. 649, 100 S.Ct. 2395, 65 L.Ed.2d 410 (1980), the Supreme Court affirmed that an individual can retain a legitimate expectation of privacy after a private individual conducts a search, but in Jacobsen the Court clarified that \u201cadditional invasions of [an individual\u2019s] privacy by the Government agent must be tested by the degree to which they exceeded the scope of the private search.\u201d Jacobsen, 466 U.S. at 115, 104 S.Ct. 1652. Here, since the police reviews of the thumb drive did not exceed Mr. Johnson’s, there can be no \u201cadditional invasions\u201d to consider.<\/p>\n
The mere fact that he was also employed by a government agency does not turn him into a part of the \u201claw enforcement arm of the state.\u201d Johnson’s testimony at the hearing established that he was using the computer for work purposes and not in a law enforcement capacity.<\/p>\n
. . .<\/p>\n
In sum, the Court finds that Mr. Durdley had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the thumb drive once he attached it to a common-use computer and forgot to remove it. Second, even if he did, the search by Mr. Johnson would be considered a private, rather than law enforcement search under Ortega and Reyes. Third, the subsequent police search did not exceed the scope of the private search. Thus, nothing about the search of the thumb drive justifies excluding the evidence found thereon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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