People v. Lopez CA1/2

BACKGROUND

A. The April 2014 Search Warrant Detective Andrew Armando of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office authored a 15-page affidavit in support of the challenged search warrant on April 25, 2014. On the morning of December 1, 2013, contraband—an unauthorized cell phone (hereafter jail phone) and narcotics—was found in cell No. 38 in pod 5 West at the San Mateo County jail. Hours later, the jail phone received a call made from a San Mateo County phone line located at 1050 Mission Road in South San Francisco (San Mateo County Superior Court – Northern), also known as the Northern Court. The jail phone was passcode protected. Additionally, the jail phone had no identifying information: the “Samsung identification sticker” had been removed and the SIM card information had been “scratched off.” Based on these alterations, Detective Armando believed “it was clear . . . that the owner/possessor of the phone went through great lengths to conceal the ownership information” relating to the jail phone. Detective Armando’s application sought judicial authority to search Lopez’s personal cell phone records, stored voicemail messages, text messages, stored email content, and all…