Warrant in CP case may have violated Fourth Amendment

Imagine this set of facts: Law enforcement receives a tip of a website containing child pornography. Yahoo e-mail account qek9pj8z9ec@yahoo.com is the suspect, and the IP address used to create the account is provided. Detectives connect the account with Nicole Chism living in Washington (but the account registration says she lives in Chile). Her credit card was used to pay for hosting of the website. The IP addresses used to create and access the account were tracked to two other people - both living in Washington, but hundreds of miles from Chism's home. Based on this information, detectives believed they had probable cause to believe Nicole's husband committed the crime.

Nicole's husband, Todd, was arrested, and his home and office were searched for child pornography. He was never charged with a crime and subsequently argued that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated. As you might imagine, the Chisms' credit card had been stolen. No evidence connected Todd to the images except for the hosting payment. The affidavit also alleged that the credit card was used to purchase images of child pornography, but no evidence existed for that claim. Further, it never mentioned the other IP addresses, connected Todd to Nicole's credit card, or mentioned that the account was registered to Nicole in Chile.

As a result, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment, finding that a substantial showing of the officers' reckless or intentional disregard for the trust existed, their false statements and omissions were material, and the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity upon remand. The case is Chism v. Washington, 661 F.3d 380 (9th Cir. 2011).