Oakland County Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
Earlier this month, a state appellate court issued a written opinion in a Michigan breaking and entering case involving law enforcement’s use of GPS data recovered from the defendant’s cellular phone. The case required the court to determine if law enforcement’s search of the defendant’s phone required suppression of the evidence that was on the phone. Ultimately, the court concluded that the search was permissible, affirming the defendant’s convictions.
According to the court’s opinion, the allegations in this case spanned from December 22 to December 23, 2016. Evidently, someone broke into a Clinton County business and then stole a car from a neighboring business. Later that day, a barn in Bingham Township was broken into. The next day, a gun was stolen from a car in Fowler. Several of these locations had video surveillance.
After reviewing the video, detectives developed the defendant, who was known to police, as a suspect. A few days later the defendant was arrested. While being held at the jail, the defendant asked a deputy if he could get his phone back to make a call. When the deputy gave the defendant his phone, the defendant performed a factory reset.