Mediaboss Marketing

by John Wesley Hall Criminal Defense Lawyer and Fourth Amendment consultant Little Rock, Arkansas Contact / The Book Search and seizure law consulting http://www.johnwesleyhall.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links

Latest Slip Opinions: U.S. Supreme Court (Home) Federal Appellate Courts Opinions First Circuit Second Circuit Third Circuit Fourth Circuit Fifth Circuit Sixth Circuit Seventh Circuit Eighth Circuit Ninth Circuit Tenth Circuit Eleventh Circuit D.C. Circuit FDsys: Many district courts FDsys: Many federal courts FDsys: Other Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG State courts (and some USDC opinions)

Google Scholar Advanced Google Scholar Google search tips LexisWeb LII State Appellate Courts LexisONE free caselaw Findlaw Free Opinions To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $

Research Links: Supreme Court: SCOTUSBlog S. Ct. Docket Solicitor General's site SCOTUSreport Briefs online (but no amicus briefs) Curiae (Yale Law) Oyez Project (NWU) "On the Docket"Medill S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com

General (many free): LexisWeb Google Scholar | Google LexisOne Legal Website Directory Crimelynx Lexis.com $ Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $ Findlaw.com Findlaw.com (4th Amd) Westlaw.com $ F.R.Crim.P. 41 http://www.fd.org FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf) DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download) DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)

Congressional Research Service: Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012) Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012) Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012) Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012) Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012) ACLU on privacy Privacy Foundation Electronic Privacy Information Center Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.) Section 1983 Blog

"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't." Me

"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government." Shemaya, in the Thalmud

See original here:

Fourth Amendment Blog

Paramedic accuses officials of Fourth Amendment violation

By Amanda Taylor

April 14th, 2014 @ 9:35pm

SALT LAKE CITY A United Fire Authority employee has filed a motion to suppress evidence he believes was unlawfully gathered and in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Paramedic Ryan Pyle was charged with prescription fraud after an investigation into missing morphine led a Cottonwood Heights police detective to search medical records as part of his investigation.

Nobody was ever charged with the theft of the morphine, legal director of the ACLU of Utah John Mejia said. That was not the basis for the charges against that paramedic. He was charged with suspected prescription fraud.

Last year, several vials of morphine in ambulances based at three fire stations were found empty. United Fire Authority employees who made this discovery called the police. A Cottonwood Heights Police Department detective searched prescription histories of UFA employees, trying to make a connection.

The detective logged into the Utah controlled substances database to download prescription histories of all 480 UFA employees. Utah does not require police to get a warrant before accessing this sensitive health data. He then identified four people whom he deemed dependent on opioid (psychoactive chemicals such as morphine or other opiates) painkillers, and had them charged with prescription fraud.

The evidence gathered against this paramedic should be excluded from the proceedings, and if this evidence is excluded they have no case, Mejia said. The Fourth Amendment requires individualized suspicion that somebody is committing a crime. Had the investigator developed some sort of suspicion against any particular firefighter and then sought a warrant and then gone after this private, sensitive medical information in that way, we might not be here because thats the way the Fourth Amendment is supposed to work.

Mejia said that he suspects all employees, including receptionists and others who would not have a chance to access the morphine, had their records accessed and combed over during the investigation.

See the original post:

Paramedic accuses officials of Fourth Amendment violation