United States v. Jerome T. Heckenkamp, United States of America v. Jerome T. Heckenkamp

In this case, we consider whether a remote search of computer files on a hard drive by a network administrator was justified under the “special needs” exception to the Fourth Amendment because the administrator reasonably believed the computer had been used to gain unauthorized access to confidential records on a university computer. We conclude that the remote search was justified.

Although we assume that the subsequent search of the suspect’s dorm room was not justified under the Fourth Amendment, we conclude that the district court’s denial of the suppression motion was proper under the independent source exception to the exclusionary rule.

I

In December 1999, Scott Kennedy, a computer system administrator for Qual-comm Corporation in San Diego, California, discovered that somebody had obtained unauthorized access to (or “hacked into,” in popular parlance) the company’s computer network. Kennedy contacted Special Agent Terry Rankhorn of the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the intrusion.

Kennedy was able to trace the intrusion to a computer on the University of Wisconsin at Madison network, and he contacted the university’s computer help desk, seeking assistance.…