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Laptop Search Upheld -- Defendant was indicted with various co-conspirators for stealing personal identifying information of other individuals and using it to file fraudulent unemployment claims in Texas. During their investigation, law enforcement officers learned from a co-conspirator that the defendant had stashed a cardboard box box and laptop computer at his girlfriend's apartment, and they went there to retrieve them.

Prior to their arrival, defendant's girlfriend opened the box in an effort to find contact information for the defendant, and she observed a variety of incriminating items, including multiple credit cards, ID cards, and tax documents. After police seized the box, they conducted a similar examination of its contents, and relied on what they observed to support their application for a search warrant to search defendant's computer. The search warrant was granted and incriminating evidence of false unemployment claims was recovered. Defendant moved to suppress the evidence retrieved from the laptop, arguing that the laptop was improperly seized and illegally searched prior to police obtaining a warrant. The Court of Appeals disagreed on both counts. The laptop and cardboard box, the Court said, were obtained through an independent source (i.e., information from a co-conspirator and testimony by defendant's girlfriend). Moreover, defendant's allegations that the police improperly searched the laptop prior to obtaining a search warrant were not supported by the evidence. The computer logs submitted by defendant simply verified the officer's testimony that when she handled the laptop, it came out of sleep mode and she then turned it off. The District Court's ruling on defendant's motion to suppress was upheld.