Defendant was notorious to the University of Louisville Art Library staff and patrons for using the public terminals to view pornography, likely child pornography. They were on the look out. When he showed up and signed in on a terminal, the staff could see pornography, and they called university police. The officer came to defendant, who minimized the image so nobody could see what he was looking at. The officer asked him to come outside so they could talk, and defendant came out. The officer asked about child pornography, and defendant “freely” admitted looking at it and having it on a thumb drive with him. He was arrested. There was probable cause for the arrest. The officer came to the computer and opened the screen seeing child pornography. Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a library public use computer terminal. He consented to a search of his apartment, that computer, and the thumb drive. United States v. LaPradd, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102355 (W.D. Ky. September 28, 2010):<\/p>\n
LaPradd did not have a subjective expectation of privacy using the public computers at the Art Library. The computers are located in the lobby of the library and in plain view of the patrons and staff. Indeed, that other patrons saw LaPradd viewing pornographic images indicates just how little privacy is afforded those who use the Art Library’s public computers. Additionally, access to the computers appears to be granted at the library staff’s discretion, illustrating that LaPradd had ultimately no control over whether he could use the computer, and consequently could not have expected any privacy as to his computer-related activities. Finally, the internet sites to which the computer terminal was connected did not contain personal information relevant to LaPradd, such as an email account; instead they were generally accessible to all with a computer and the internet, and therefore LaPradd had no expectation of privacy in viewing those particular sites.<\/p>\n
Courts around the country have also been reluctant to extend broad Fourth Amendment search protections to computers and computer-generated information located on a computer outside of one’s residence or place of work. … <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
[Posted 10\/3; I got busy yesterday]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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