Battershell

We are asked to determine whether a search warrant application describing allegedly illegal photos contained on a computer was sufficient to establish probable cause to search the computer when the application did not include copies of the offending images.

Vancouver, Washington, police seized Joel Battershell’s computer after responding to a call from Battershell’s girlfriend and her sister that they had found child pornography on it. Four months later, a police forensic detective trained in retrieving computer evidence applied for a search warrant to examine its contents. The warrant application signed by the forensic investigator did not include copies of the digital photographs taken by patrol officers of two pictures the officers had seen on the computer when they took the complaint. The police report appended to the warrant application, however, recited the women’s original complaint that the computer contained photos of “kids having sex” as well as the officers’ description of the two photos they had viewed.

A Clark County, Washington, district court judge found the warrant application sufficient to establish probable cause that Battershell’s computer contained…