The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has excluded evidence obtained from the cellphone of the defendant in Commonwealth v. Onyx White<\/u> following the Boston Police\u2019s failure to prove probable cause for the warrantless seizure of the phone. \u00a0The court affirmed that the warrantless seizure of a cell phone in the robbery-homicide investigation could not be justified by the detective\u2019s personal judgment as to whether or not the cell phone contained important information relating to a case. The SJC ruled that the 68 day delay in the respective search warrant application was was unreasonable and that the Boston Police department should have prioritized the application for the respective search warrant or released the cell phone back to the defendant.<\/p>\n
About the Case<\/strong><\/p>\n After speaking with an administrative at the defendant\u2019s high school based on his connection to a robbery-homicide, the administrative had informed the detective that she was in possession of the defendant\u2019s personal cell phone as part of school policy. After gaining approval from his supervisor, the detective seized the cell phone in order to prevent the defendant from tampering with any potential evidence stored in the phone. A search warrant was issued 68 days later following the emergence of new information. Although the detective did not search the phone prior to the search warrant, the forensic search revealed evidence significant to the investigation.<\/p>\n