Opinion
NO. 2:11-CR-0026 FCD
08-01-2011
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. AMADO N. HERNANDEZ, Defendant.
DANIEL J. BRODERICK, Bar #89424
Federal Defender
TIMOTHY ZINDEL, Bar# 158377
Assistant Federal Defender
Attorney for Defendant
AMADO N. HERNANDEZ
PROTECTIVE ORDER COVERING SEIZED DIGITAL MEDIA
ORDER
This order pertains to all digital media seized in the investigation of the above case, in light of the allegation that some of that media may contain sexually explicit images of minors in violation of federal law. The Court therefore orders as follows.
1. Butte County District Attorneys Office investigators shall make a duplicate copy of any seized computer hard drive and any other storage media available for defense analysis.
2. The duplicate copies of the hard drive and storage media shall be made available to defense counsel, Timothy Zindel, defense paralegal Julie Denny, or to another member of the defense team from the Federal Defender's office, and to defendant's proposed expert, Marcus Lawson or to his colleague at the same employer, Global CompuSearch LLC, to review at the Sacramento High Tech Task Force offices in Sacramento, California, for the purpose of preparing for the defense of the above-entitled action. The images on the hard drive and storage media shall not be viewed by any other person.
3. A private room will be provided for the defense examination. No Government agents will be inside the room during the examination.
4. The expert will be permitted to bring whatever equipment, books, or records he believes may be necessary to conduct the examination.
5. Neither the defense expert nor defense attorneys nor the defense paralegal shall remove the hard drive or other storage media from the confines of the law enforcement office.
6. With the exception of materials which would be considered child pornography under federal law (including visual depictions and data capable of conversion into a visual depiction), the expert may download and remove files or portions of files, provided the forensic integrity of the hard drive is not altered. The expert will certify in writing (using the attached certification), that he has taken no materials which would be considered child pornography, or data capable of being converted into child pornography, and that he has not caused any child pornography to be sent from the law enforcement premises by any means including by any electronic transfer of files.
7. Except when a defense expert fails to provide this certification, no Government agent, or any person connected with the Government, will examine or acquire in any fashion any of the items used by the expert in order to conduct the defense analysis. Should a defense expert fail to certify that the expert has not copied or removed child pornography, or data capable of being converted into child pornography, Government agents may then inspect or examine the materials in order to ensure that prohibited child pornography has not been removed.
8. When the defense indicates that it is finished with its review of the copy of the hard drives, the drive(s) or other storage devices shall be "wiped" clean or otherwise disposed of using appropriate law enforcement protocols.
9. Any disputes regarding the above or problems implementing this order shall be brought to the attention of the court through representative counsel after first consulting opposing counsel.
IT IS SO ORDERED:
KENDALL NEWMAN
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff,
v.
AMADO N. HERNANDEZ, Defendant.
No. 2:11-CR-0026 FCD
CERTIFICATION
I, ____________, certify under penalty of perjury that I have not copied or removed any images of child pornography or data capable of being converted into images of child pornography, or caused the same to be transferred electronically (or by any other means) to any other location, during the course of my review of the evidence in this case.