Attorney argues cellphone data should be tossed

Apr 25, 2015

An attorney representing a man accused of sexual assault argued Friday afternoon that evidence gathered from her client’s cellphone should be excluded from trial because it was obtained illegally and the search warrant went beyond the scope of an affidavit the department filed.

Apr 25, 2015

An attorney representing a man accused of sexual assault argued Friday afternoon that evidence gathered from her client’s cellphone should be excluded from trial because it was obtained illegally and the search warrant went beyond the scope of an affidavit the department filed.

Jennifer Bukowsky, lawyer for Paul M. Vaughan, said University of Missouri police violated her client’s right to counsel by asking him for his cellphone’s passcode after he invoked his right to an attorney. She said police invaded Vaughan’s privacy by extracting all data from his phone, while an affidavit specifically asked for a search warrant to download only items that qualified as evidence in the investigation. The warrant, she argued, should be ruled invalid.

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