The state officer here applied for a search warrant by video conference and either email or fax of the documents (the opinion doesn\u2019t say how the judge had them) as permitted under Georgia statute. There was no recording made of the video conference as required by the statute. The defense concedes probable cause but wants to challenge whether the judge was neutral and detached by the time stamps that say the warrant was issued 51 seconds after the application was made, which may or may not be accurate. The remedy for lack of a recording is to confine the government to the \u201cfour corners\u201d of the application for lack of a record of anything else that might have been added, following United States v. McMahon, 2008 CCA LEXIS 315 at *11-13 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. Sept. 12, 2008) (issuing authority and applying officer authority were unavailable; with no record of conversation, government confined to four corners. United States v. Gordon, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161936 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 6, 2015), adopted 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162150 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 2, 2015).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The state officer here applied for a search warrant by video conference and either email or fax of the documents (the opinion doesn\u2019t say how the judge had them) as permitted under Georgia statute. There was no recording made of … Continue reading