The National Trial Lawyers
  • Home
    • Meet Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Mission & Goals
    • FAQ
  • Webinars
  • News
  • Membership Directory
    • Top 100 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 100 Map – Criminal Defense
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Civil Plaintiff
    • Top 40 Under 40 Map – Criminal Defense
  • Top 100
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 100 President’s Message
    • Diplomat
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 100 Badge
    • Media
  • Top 40
    • Civil Plaintiff Officers / Executive Committee
    • Criminal Defense Officers / Executive Committee
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Bootcamp
    • Benefits
    • About
    • Top 40 President’s Message
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Top 40 Badge
    • Media
  • Specialty Assoc
    • About
    • Shop
    • Officers
    • Membership Renewal
    • Member Profile Updates
    • Media
  • Nominate
    • Top 100
    • Top 40
    • Specialty Association
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer of the Year
    • Trial Team of the Year
    • America’s Most Influential Trial Lawyer
    • America’s Most Influential Law Firm
    • Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Shop
  • Magazine
    • A-List
  • Education and Networking Agenda
    • Trial Lawyers Summit
      • Summit Sponsors
    • Top 40 Under 40 Trial Academy Boot Camp
    • Mass Torts Made Perfect
    • The Lanier Master Class 5.0 Trial Academy 2021
    • Webinars
  • Hall of Fame
    • Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame

Circuit Court Rules No Warrant Needed For Police to Get Cell Records

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Larry Bodine

no warrant needed for cell recordsThe 11th circuit court of appeals has ruled that cell phone records showing a suspected armed robber’s general location near the time and location of several robberies were admissible in court against him and did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights.

“The reach of the majority opinion is breathtaking,” said Davis’s attorney David Markus.  “It means that the government can get anything stored by a third-party: your Facebook posts, your Amazon purchases, your Internet search history, even the documents and pictures you store in the cloud, all without a warrant.”

Cell phone records

Quartavius Davis was sentenced to a 162-year prison term for his conviction in seven armed robberies that occurred in Miami, Florida, between August 2010 and October 2010.  Police used MetroPCS cell phone records from a pre-paid disposable phone registered to “Lil Wayne” to connect Davis to the string of robberies.  The records, along with accomplice and witness testimony, and surveillance video showing a man matching Davis’s description, were introduced as evidence that Davis participated in the robberies.

The government complied with the Stored Communications Act (SCA) when requesting the order granting access to the records. The SCA provides that the government can order telephone companies to disclose customer records (not including contents of the communications) if it can prove reasonable grounds to a court magistrate that the records sought are “relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.”  The court order does not require probable cause, according to the opinion.

Location of calls occurred near robberies

MetroPCS only supplied information about calls made and received through nearby cell phone tower locations.  But the police did not request, nor did MetroPCS provide, GPS or “real-time” location information.

The court found that the evidence as a whole suggested that Davis’s calls “occurred within an area that covers at least several city blocks,” which the government argued showed Davis was near the robberies when they occurred.  However, the government never quantified the distance between the robberies, cell tower location, nor the cell user, according to the court opinion.

Court initially said records violated rights

On an appeal on the conviction by Davis, a three-judge-panel of the 11th circuit court found that the telephone records obtained without a warrant did violate Davis’s fourth amendment rights, although his conviction was upheld. The justice department appealed that ruling, and the 11th circuit court agreed that the government complied with the higher standards of the SCA in obtaining the records.

The 9-2 court opinion explains that Davis’s rights were not violated because the records were obtaining in compliance with the SCA, which “raises the bar from an ordinary subpoena to one with additional privacy protections built-in” in requesting third-party business records, in this case, cell phone call and tower information from MetroPCS.

No reasonable expectation of privacy

The court, using Fifth Circuit case law, explained that cell phone subscribers know that their cell phones must submit a signal to cell phone towers and are aware and voluntarily allows for location information to be conveyed to cell phone towers when a call is made.  Therefore, using a court order to obtain those records does not violate a cell phone user’s fourth amendment rights.

The case is U.S. v. Davis Case no. 12-12928 in the United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals

Posted in Blog, Criminal Law / DUI

Comments are closed.

News Categories

Subscribe to Blog and VFJ via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog, the Voice for Justice and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Read about other Top Jury Verdicts

Toyota Will Pay $180M to Settle Violations of the Clean-Air Act

Toyota Will Pay $180M to Settle Violations of the Clean-Air Act

The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that the United States has[Read More...]
Boeing's Insitu Will Pay $25M to Settle a Whistleblower Complaint About Used Drone Parts

Boeing's Insitu Will Pay $25M to Settle a Whistleblower Complaint About Used Drone Parts

Bingen, Wash.-based Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, has agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it used recycl[Read More...]
Deutsche Bank Agrees to Settle Criminal and Civil Charges for $130M

Deutsche Bank Agrees to Settle Criminal and Civil Charges for $130M

DEUTSCHE Bank AG agreed to pay US$130 million to settle criminal and civil charges that it bribed foreign officials and manip[Read More...]
Boeing Pays $2.5B to Settle Charges Tied to the 737 MAX Crashes

Boeing Pays $2.5B to Settle Charges Tied to the 737 MAX Crashes

Boeing has agreed to pay just over $2.5 billion to resolve a federal charge of “criminal misconduct” for how its [Read More...]
Texas Attorney General Seeks $43M in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

Texas Attorney General Seeks $43M in Google Antitrust Lawsuit

The mass exodus of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's top staff over accusations of bribery against their former boss has le[Read More...]

#LegalNews

@@TheNTLtop100

Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Attorney information and content provided on this website is provided for the benefit of members of The National Trial Lawyers and as a public service by Legal Associations Management, Inc. The website and all data are the property of Legal Associations Management, Inc. Data, including without limitation attorney information and content, on the site may not be mined, sold, or used commercially for any purpose without the explicit written consent of Legal Associations Management, Inc. This site may not be accessed by any automated program for extracting data for any use. By accessing and using the site you agree that you will not develop, support or use software, devices, scripts, robots, or any other means or processes (including crawlers, browser plug-ins and add-ons, or any other technology) to scrape data or otherwise copy profiles and other data. Unauthorized use or attempted unauthorized use of this system may subject you to both civil and criminal penalties.