Ride the Lightning

CHRISTMAS FOR THE DEFENSE: WHEN THE AUTHORITIES MUCK IT UP

September 26, 2007

No one who does computer forensics will be surprised by the observation that law enforcement and the prosecution frequently blunder and hand defense counsel unexpected gifts that demonstrate, at the very least, an underwhelming amount of competence. The last two days have been extraordinary examples. Yesterday, we received (via U.S. mail no less) a print-out of electronic evidence – and I’m not even going to point out how ridiculous that is. The amazing thing was that the print outs were sent to us via the Office of the State Attorney for a neighboring state – and they contained graphic images of child porn in direct violation of federal law. Since, according to the federal government, no one outside of law enforcement may have custody of child pornography, even as a defense expert with a state court order, this would (to phrase it mildly) put us in the soup. We promptly notified the Fairfax police that we had received this evidence and shredded it, to protect ourselves. The thought of the authorities blithely mailing this stuff out is somewhat horrifying, to say the least.

Today was more comical. Courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security, we received evidence in a case. While we are entitled to the evidence files in the case, the comedy is that the forensic examiner for the government neglected to follow proper procedure and wipe the drive before transferring evidence files to it. As a result, we have his full forensic analysis of the case, which he deleted, but did not wipe. Christmas in September. Isn’t it great?

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