A child pornography investigation brought investigators to a fire station after an IP address was traced there. The officer could not open the files after defendant consented to a look at the computer. At that point, seizure of defendant\u2019s computer was justified by exigent circumstances because it was likely defendant would destroy the images before a search warrant could be obtained. United States v. Bradley, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59816 (E.D. Ky. June 16, 2010):<\/p>\n
Although Bradley had consented to the image scan and examination of his LimeWire props, Bradley still could have attempted to destroy evidence once out of the investigators’ presence. See United States v. Lamb, No 09-CR-44, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19899, at *22 (N.D. W. Va. Jan. 14, 2010) (noting that although it seemed unlikely that the defendant would have destroyed evidence because he was cooperating with agents, he “could have gone into the residence and deleted some or all of the images from his computer or destroyed his computer”). Because Investigator Bell had a reasonable expectation that Bradley would destroy the evidence, exigent circumstances were present when Bell seized the computer. See Vallimont, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 9651 at *4 (noting that concern about destruction of evidence was understandable where defendant might become aware of the investigation); United States v. Stiles, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41325, at *13 (holding that because the defendant had already admitted that the computer contained child pornography, there was a risk the computer would disappear if the agents did not immediately seize it); cf. United States v. Santa, 236 F.3d 662, 670 (11th Cir. 2000) (holding that there were no exigent circumstances where defendants were “unaware of their impending arrest”).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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