Video voyeurism search warrant was based on probable cause and fairly included search of computer

Defendant was accused of surreptitiously videotaping women at his house when they disrobed. This authorized a search warrant for his computer because of intricate wiring described to the officers for recording, storage, and display of videos. This led to discovery of child porn on defendant’s computer, and a second search warrant was issued for that. He argued that the search warrant for the videos lacked probable cause based on a tortured reading of the statute that essentially would have any woman in an intimate setting not having an expectation that she would not be recorded. The court would not accept such a construction because it would nullify the statute. The officers showed enough to get to the computer because they could not predict how the images were recorded and stored. United States v. Alexander, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68290 (W.D. Mo. September 14, 2007)*:

The affidavit supports the inference that Alexander used a variety of means to record and store images. At the time the officers applied for the warrant, they knew only that potential incriminating evidence of invasion of privacy existed; they did not know the particular electronic format in which the evidence may have been maintained by Alexander. That evidence may have been hard copy videotapes or DVDs or digital feed into a computer. See United States v. Summage, 481 F.3d 1075, 1079 (8th Cir. 2007). The search for evidence of invasion of privacy on the computer was within the scope of the warrant which led to Judge Midkiff’s second warrant to search for child pornography.

Defendant officers lose on apparent authority for consent search claim where the person they claimed had authority had no key, said she lacked authority, and, at their request, went in through a window she had to break, setting off a burglar alarm. Alternatively, there were no exigent circumstances for the entry by the time they decided to enter. “If so, there would have been sufficient time to obtain a search warrant, rendering both prongs of Defendants’ exigent circumstances argument little more than post hoc rationalizations for the search.” Defendants’ motions for summary judgment denied. Plevritis v. City of Chicago, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68518 (N.D. Ill. September 17, 2007).*