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April 16, 2005
D'oh
There's a big murder trial going on in adjacent Benton County right now, and files found on the defendent's computer is a big part of the state's evidence. Small problem.....police accessed the computer after it was seized. And, according to an expert called by the defense, they didn't just look for evidence.
A murdered man's computer was used to access dozens of Internet pornography Web sites after being seized by police in September 1999, a computer forensic expert testified Friday.
They also allegedly deleted some files.
If these allegations are true, I can't even begin to describe how incredibly stupid that was. It could very well cost them a murder conviction.
Properly preserving computer evidence isn't that hard. You walk into a room, unplug (not shut down) the computer, put it in a box and seal it with evidence tape. Do all the chain of custody stuff. Then you don't touch the damn thing until you turn it over to someone trained in computer forensics.
Not exactly quantum physics here.
Posted by Rita at April 16, 2005 09:00 AM
Comments
I can't begin to describe how unsurprised I am by this. People ( police ) using computers to access pornography is unheard of where I come from ( Mars ).
Posted by: Toby1 at April 16, 2005 06:23 PM
Not computers that've been seized as evidence. That's just stupid.
Posted by: rita at April 17, 2005 12:28 PM