NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: Child Porn On Your Computer? Do Your Own Upgrades.
When Kenneth Sodomsky - his real name - took his computer to a Circuit City in Wyomissing, PA, to have a DVD burner installed in 2004, a techie called police after finding “questionable” video files on the hard drive labeled with boys’ names, ages and descriptions of sex acts. “Police seized the computer, obtained a warrant and found child pornography,” reports The Associated Press.
A trial court agreed with Sodomsky that the discovery should be suppressed, but the ruling was overturned on appeal. The Supreme Court has now refused to take up Sodomsky’s challenge to the appellate court ruling that the evidence is admissible because Sodomsky knew the files were on his computer and voluntarily turned it over to Circuit City employees, thus risking that the videos would be found and viewed. Prosecutors are now free to use the videos as evidence against Sodomsky.
Unless there is something peculiar about PA law, the Fourth Amendment has never covered the acts of private citizens unless those people areacting at the express direction of the government. Someone could burglarize his house, steal his computer and turn it over to police, and the files would still be usable in court. In general, anyway.
Reply to this