E.D.N.C.: 20 year scope in records search not overbroad as a matter of law

A date limitation that went back to 1990 was not overbroad as a matter of law. A search warrant for defendant’s gmail email account for evidence of flight was validly issued because the informant’s story was sufficiently corroborated. United States v. Salyer, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16981 (E.D. N.C. February 9, 2012):

First, defendant challenges the inclusion of Category II(C)(1), handwritten lab registers and other documents purportedly relating to fraudulent product labeling, because it includes documents going back to 1990, “long before the relevant time period.” But defendant provides no authority for this view that only documents dated within the “relevant time period” are subject to search. The cases relied upon by defendant do not stand for this proposition. The cited Ninth Circuit cases involved warrants that permitted searches that were not likely to find evidence of a crime at all. Defendant has identified no case, and the court is aware of none, where the “scope” referred to the mere date of the evidence gathered. The government made a probable cause showing that the evidence of the mis-labeling crimes was to be found in the lab registers and similar documents. Therefore, the government was entitled to search the lab registers.

Police were driving down a cul de sac conducting surveillance, and they were made. They stopped when defendant gestured by waiving his arms and slapping his chest. He refused to identify himself, and he got handcuffed. He was asked about whether there was anybody in the house, and he said there was, so the police could go to the door to knock. They were admitted by acquiescence by somebody with actual authority. United States v. Coulter, 461 Fed. Appx. 763 (10th Cir. 2012).*