Mass. court finds lack of probable cause in e-mail account with CP

The Appeals Court of Massachusetts struck down a search warrant for lack of probable cause in Commonwealth v. Finglas,  957 N.E.2d 1132  (2011).

Investigators had been contacted by America Online (AOL), reporting that the account of user "NATALY20" contained five images of child pornography. The images had been received from another e-mail account. NATALY20's account was tracked to the defendant. Law enforcement obtained a search warrant and executed it.

The problem, as the court noted, was that there was nothing to show that the images were sought by the defendant, but instead, may have been unsolicited. Further, there was no information to show whether the "images were accessed, viewed, and/or saved."