blackberry

CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL LAWYER NEWS: SEARCH OF A BLACKBERRY REQUIRES MORE BRIEFING

The defendant came in to be arrested and brought a backpack, and inside was a Blackberry, which the officers searched and seized the "contacts" list. The court required further briefing of the issue of access to the Blackberry. The USMJ denied the motion to suppress the contents of the Blackberry, but the USDJ wants further briefing. United States v. Carroll, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7485 (February 1, 2008):

As Carroll and the Government identify, this and other courts have reached varying conclusions on whether searches of an arrestee's mobile phone is a lawful search incident to arrest, and if so, how far that lawful search may extend. Among the questions courts have considered are whether a mobile phone fits within the category of property intimately associated with an arrestee's person, United States v. Park, No. CR 05-375 SI, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40596, 2007 WL 1521573, at *7-8 (N.D. Cal. May 23, 2007), how contemporaneous the search must be relative to the arrest, United States v. Mercado-Nava, 486 F. Supp. 2d 1271, 1277 (D. Kan. 2007), and whether the search is limited to a phone's dynamic memory. United States v. Zamora, No. 1:05-CR-250-WSD, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8196, 2006 WL 418390, at *4-5 (N.D. Ga. Feb. 21, 2006).

The Court notes also that in this case, Carroll voluntarily surrendered himself for arrest and voluntarily brought his backpack, containing the Blackberry, to law enforcement offices at the time of his surrender. Unlike the situations considered in Zamora, Ortiz, and Park, Carroll had the opportunity to make a conscious choice about which of his effects were available to law enforcement at the time of his arrest. Neither Carroll nor the Government has developed this issue factually, nor has the issue been briefed. The Court will defer ruling on the motion to suppress the information resident in the Blackberry until an evidentiary hearing is conducted and the parties further brief this issue.