Officers had information that child pornography had been received at defendant\u2019s house via the Internet, so they did a knock-and-talk. Defendant was then attempting to delete files to the recycle bin, so the officers decided to take the computer without a warrant for safekeeping. While the files were not being permanently deleted from the computer, that wasn\u2019t determinative. United States v. Ma, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158775 (D. Mont. November 6, 2012):<\/p>\n
The court finds that the agents’ decision to take the computer with them did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Whether or not Ma’s actions could have permanently destroyed the evidence of child pornography is not the question here. Ma’s actions, taken immediately after he was informed that the agents were looking for evidence of possession of child pornography, made it reasonable for the agents to believe he was attempting to destroy evidence, regardless of the language in which the files were captioned. Ma points to no authority stating that agents in the field are required to have a sophisticated understanding of computer technology or absolute certainty about whether Ma’s actions were reversible. Furthermore, the court notes that once the computer was seized by law enforcement, nothing was done to access its files until the search warrant was issued. This action adds to the reasonableness of the agents’ actions, a critical inquiry under the Fourth Amendment. See Kentucky v. King, __ U.S. __, 131 S.Ct. 1849, 1856 (2011) (“The ultimate touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is ‘reasonableness'”) (quoting Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U.S. 398, 403 (2006)).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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