A new ruling by the Indiana Court of Appeals creates a loophole to the statutory requirement that every search warrant be executed within 10 days of being approved by a judge.
The 3-0 decision, penned by Appeals Judge Cale Bradford, holds the 10-day deadline specified in the Indiana Code is not absolute, and a search warrant may still be valid after 10 days if the probable cause supporting the warrant remains intact, and the delay does not prejudice the defendant or was due to deliberate disregard of the law by investigating officers.
Bradford noted Indiana law does not specify what must happen with evidence recovered in connection with an untimely warrant and federal court precedent suggests noncompliance with a search warrant deadline does not automatically require the evidence be excluded.
In this case, Bradford said the 14-day delay in serving the search warrant issued Dec. 22, 2022, on Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, was due in part to a novice investigator waiting for assistance from a more experienced colleague during the holiday season.
"The record shows that rather than a bad faith attempt to try and circumvent the law, (the officer) was trying to make sure he did things the right way," Bradford said. "The record demonstrates that probable cause continued to exist when the warrant was sent to Meta."
Bradford said excluding the evidence obtained through the warrant would be "the most extreme sanction" for ignoring the 10-day deadline and "wildly out of proportion to the wrong," since the defendant did not argue, let alone show, the delay impeded his right to a fair trial.
"The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the challenged evidence," Bradford said.
The ruling leaves intact 27-year-old Connor Bosworth's numerous child exploitation and child pornography convictions stemming from multiple sexually explicit photos of children that the Hartford City man collected and shared online, including on Instagram.
Records show Bosworth was sentenced to 41 years in prison and 23 years on probation.
He still can ask the Indiana Supreme Court to consider granting him a new trial that excludes the evidence obtained in connection with the stale search warrant.
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