Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals - April 2020

This post summarizes published criminal and related decisions of interest from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in April 2020. Previous summaries of Fourth Circuit criminal cases can be found here. Without deciding the scope of the private search doctrine as applied to digital devices, any defect in the warrant fell within Leon good-faith, and any misrepresentation in the affidavit was immaterial U.S. v. Fall, 955 F.3d 363 (April 3, 2020). In this Eastern District of Virginia case, a relative of the defendant discovered several computers with child pornography at the defendant’s residence and contacted police. The woman showed an officer the images she found and was referred to a detective. The detective examined the home screen of the laptop and saw thumbnail images that he thought could be child pornography. The detective clicked on the items and confirmed his suspicions. When contacted by police, the defendant refused to make a statement or consent to a search of his home. Officers went to secure the home while awaiting the search warrant. Around this time, neighbors saw a man climb out of an upstairs window of the defendant’s residence, discard an item on the roof, jump down, and run away. Officers discovered a laptop on the roof, as well as other computers inside the home, all of which were later determined to contain child pornography. The search warrant application recounted the relative’s report, the detective’s viewing of the images identified by the niece and in the thumbnails and described those images. It [...]