Cal. appellate court affirms destruction of minor's laptop containing CP

A California appellate court has affirmed a ruling ordering destruction of a computer containing child pornography over due process claims and an argument that destruction of the hard drive would suffice. In re Mitchell W., 2012 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 2527 (Cal. Ct. App. 2012).

The minor had violated his probation by possessing child pornography, and the laptop containing the images was ordered to be destroyed. His attorney argued that the images could be removed by taking the computer to a computer store, or alternatively, by destroying only the drive.

The appellate court affirmed. Counsel presented no law which would allow possession of the computer for the purpose of transporting it to a technician for removal of the child pornography. Further, although destroying the hard drive would have sufficiently removed the images, "the juvenile court could legitimately have been concerned that the search of the minor's house did not turn up other data media that could be played in the computer, such as optical discs or flash drives, even if the original hard drive was destroyed." Thus, destruction of the laptop was "consistent with the rehabilitative purpose of probation."

A concurring opinion agreed simply "because the minor was playing video games on the computer, which was interfering with his school attendance."