In prosecution on charges arising out of undercover police investigation of defendant’s communications with what defendant believed was 14-year old girl, but in actuality was police agent posing as said girl, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress evidence that agent sent text message to defendant’s cell phone, after defendant had been arrested and his cell phone seized, to demonstrate that defendant had actually been communicating with agent. No 4th Amendment violation occurred, where agent did not affirmatively access any information on phone and only witnessed what was in plain view. Moreover, defendant did not have reasonable expectation of privacy in conspicuous notifications that appeared on cell phone screen after phone was seized incident to arrest.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Criminal Court
Search and Seizure