Our client was a successful regional supervisor for Home Depot who became the subject of a federal child pornography investigation.
Federal agents came to his house with a search warrant and seized several computers, tablets and phones. We quickly made contact with the lead agent and the U.S. Attorney’s office who agreed not to make an arrest until their forensic examinations of the devices were complete.
After the forensic examinations were completed, it became clear that the only files containing child pornography were located in the unallocated space of the computers. These were files that had been deleted and were no longer accessible to the user. Thus, we were able to argue that our client could not have been in knowing possession of these files. Even if he somehow knew that these files were still remaining in the unallocated space, he could not actually view the files without computer forensic software.
As a result of the issues with the forensic evidence, the U.S. Attorney’s office agreed to dismiss the case. Our client was never arrested and was able to avoid federal prosecution.
Categories | Child Pornography Cases,