Access to evidence, legal advice appreciated

[timberland]

Last week someone I am close to had the following happen:
Background is that he has joint custody with the mom, but they have never been married. He has a conviction from about 8 yrs ago, but has not had any issues, is off parole, and has been a great Dad. The mom has family in law enforcement has a personal friend that is an investigator. My friend and her don't get along, and both are trying to get sole custody.

Last week he was picked up by the local PD, they told him he was not arrested, but he was put in jail overnight, the jail roster said he was arrested for charges of child pornography. right after they picked him up, they entered his house (they had a search warrant) and confiscated all his electronics. This is based on a tip they received. His fiancé was called at work and told her she needed to get home ASAP, where she was interviewed by the PD, and was shown pictures, was asked if they knew anyone in the pictures, and stated that if there was enough evidence to make the "non-arrest" that there would be charges filed and he was looking at a significant prison sentence, and that the fiancé needed to get her affairs in order, was referred to a victims support, etc.
The next morning he was released after the DA and/or Prosecutor decided not to charge him. He asked multiple times for an attorney and was denied. All he was told is that its an ongoing investigation, and they would be in touch.
So now his life is in turmoil, public documents showing he was arrested for child porn, worried that he's going to lose the kids and his fiance, has no access to how or why this happened. One of the PD officers said that this has happened before (I suspect with chasing IP addresses, etc.)

He is contemplating pursuing legal action. Do you think he would have a case? what would you do? The whole deal sounds pretty fishy. This is in a small town, where everyone knows each other, too.

 

[Jimmy]

If he has done nothing wrong, I would hire a lawyer and SCREAM it from the rooftops.

 

[NMJM]

Tell him to get a lawyer and then stay out of it. If he is innocent he will have a great law suit. If he is not innocent let it play out in court. He is probably only giving you part if the story that puts him in the best light possible.

 

[Chris in TN]

I'd want an attorney in that scenario. Not to pursue legal action against someone else, but to defend myself from the charges that could still come forth. Pursuing legal action, as he's thinking about, can come down the road after the criminal aspect is past.

ETA: I was accused of something much more minor, once. No evidence. I didn't do what I was accused of - nobody did. Some people just have active imaginations. But once the toothpaste was out of the tube, putting it back sucked.

 

[AZ Gator]

Based on the info you wrote, which I assume is largely from your friend, nothing stands out as blatantly fishy or wrong from the PD. Except for the part about being in jail but not being arrested. Especially if there’s public record as you said, then it sounds like he was arrested.

Hopefully it is an IP confusion/mixup and it wasn’t him. Regardless, sounds like he needs a lawyer. It doesn’t bode well for him whether he’s innocent or not. It will be a feather in the mom’s custody case unless he can definitely prove his innocence (as opposed to proving he isn’t guilty).

This is all my speculation of course, and only based off of what you shared. Get an attorney and pray for a just outcome.

 

[coloyooper]

Contemplating legal action? I would burn that shit to the ground.

 

[Matt5266]

As someone in law enforcement if what your saying is true this is VERY concerning. Tell him to not make any statements. Use every penny he can afford and get a private attorney, one that does not reside in that small town.

 

[go_deep]

If he is telling you the truth and had nothing to do with this, I would be calling several law offices outside of this town, maybe even county, and get someone working on it yesterday.
I wouldn't care what it cost in the end.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Since they had pictures to show his wife, then he had CP on his devices right???

 

[thinhorn_AK]

If he is telling you the truth and had nothing to do with this, I would be calling several law offices outside of this town, maybe even county, and get someone working on it yesterday.
I wouldn't care what it cost in the end.

IF….:except they had pictures associated with him…..

 

[loganwayne]

Id find a lawyer, and one from another city thats never dealt with any of these people, judges, lawyers.

I had a civil case where we found documents that a lawyer had forged and couldnt find a local lawyer willing to take him to court because they are all buddies. ended up having to go a couple hrs away and paying drivetime and all the extra crap involved with them being so far away but got it handled and lawyer got himself in trouble and had to pay all our legal fees.

 

[timberland]

For those who are familiar, if they claim its an ongoing investigation, would he get access to the evidence?
It would seem that if they are chasing pings to his devices or IP addresses, he could give them more information, but they never asked. Like if someone got into his IP address at a certain time, day, etc.

Like I said, they have all his devices, but yet couldn't find any reason to charge him??

 

[timberland]

IF….:except they had pictures associated with him…..

When the fiance was showed the pictures, they never said where they came from. they could have been stock photos, for all she new. this was also before they confiscated his devices.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

He needs to hire an attorney and then sit quietly. He shouldn’t be talking about this with anyone, except his lawyer. If I was his lawyer, I’d be pissed at him talking to you.

I’ve prosecuted a lot of these cases and defended a handful of them. Scarred for life.

False allegations of sexual impropriety are common in custody disputes. But real creepers are out there too. In my experience, nearly every creep involved in this stuff was abused as a child. They get broken. I won’t speculate as to the truth in this case.

It’s not hard to eventually prove - forensically - where suspicious images came from. It can be possible to show that “it wasn’t me”, but blaming it on the cat walking on the keyboard won’t work (that was a real case). Everything leaves digital fingerprints.

The search history on those devices - once that is forensically recovered - will ultimately determine who is most likely telling the truth. CP isn’t just hanging out there for the unsuspecting to stumble upon.

Shared access to a device can be a small obstacle. I’ve seen cases turn on something as simple as a credit card receipt showing one suspect was getting gas a mile away while his roommate used his computer to download and view the CP. I’ve also seen where someone tried to blame it on the angry ex-, but the search history shows that someone was searching for motorcycle parts, then the yucky stuff, then purchased the motorcycle parts within the same hour. Hard to blame that on the ex-.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

As someone in law enforcement if what your saying is true this is VERY concerning. Tell him to not make any statements. Use every penny he can afford and get a private attorney, one that does not reside in that small town.

He needs an attorney from that town to navigate that system and an out-of-town attorney to keep the first one honest.

 

[loganwayne]

maybe not evidence, but he should be able to get his "arresting paperwork" if your held in jail even not charged there is a paper trail, same thing with a search warrant.

 

[Matt5266]

Yes you are always entitled to evidence , its called a discovery. He needs a lawyer to help walk him through this or he is going to have a real hard time dealing with this.

It is not always weird that things happen in this order. Grand jury indictments happen alot after the fact which is how some of these cases are handled. It all depends. Like I said, no sense in chasing his tail with processes he doesn't under stand he needs an attorney.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

For those who are familiar, if they claim its an ongoing investigation, would he get access to the evidence?
It would seem that if they are chasing pings to his devices or IP addresses, he could give them more information, but they never asked. Like if someone got into his IP address at a certain time, day, etc.

Like I said, they have all his devices, but yet couldn't find any reason to charge him??

It can take months of waiting for the digital forensic tests to get done.

 

[go_deep]

IF….:except they had pictures associated with him…..

Ooh, I put the "IF" in there for a reason.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

When the fiance was showed the pictures, they never said where they came from. they could have been stock photos, for all she new. this was also before they confiscated his devices.

I doubt they were "stock" photos, I guess they could be but if they are asking his wife about them, then there was probably a reason they were associated with the guy. I'm no expert but I've seen very similar situations play out. people claim innocence (obviously, its a vile crime that will and should ruin your life) there's going to be all sorts of stories, excuses, but eventually it comes out that the person was in fact involved in this sort of thing.

I just highly doubt that they got some random pics off the internet and showed them to the guys wife. There's a reason they had those pics. he'd wither downloaded them, shared them or worse...