Same Pornographic Story; Different Twist.

A man brought his computer in for servicing, and the repairman viewed what appeared to him “to be underage girls engaged in sexual activity.” He called the police. The responding officer indicated the images the repairman saw did not appear to be pornographic, but asked the repairman to search the rest of the computer. The repairman did what the officer requested and found some files he could not open. At the officer’s instruction, the repairman placed those unopened files on a flash drive and gave the drive to the officer. The files were opened at the police department, and considered to be “juvenile pornographic material.” In his criminal action, the man moved to suppress the evidence found by police, which the trial court denied. The appellate court reversed, concluding the warrantless search by the police exceeded the private search by the repairman. (The People v. Michael Evans (Cal. App. First Dist., Div. 2; October 3, 2014) (As Modified Oct. 10, 2014) 230 Cal.App.4th 261, [178 Cal.Rptr.3d 467].)