WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of a man arguing he can't be prosecuted for video files containing child porn found on his computer when it was in for servicing.
Kenneth Sodomsky took his case to the high court asking that videos found on his computer during an upgrade at a Circuit City story be suppressed.
According to Associated Press, the ironically named Sodomsky had taken his computer to a Circuit City store in Wyomissing, Penn., for DVD burner installation. A store employee was looking through files on the computer and found movies with allegedly "questionable" titles that referred to boys of different ages. One of the videos reportedly showed a hand reaching out to a penis; it was then that the employee called the police, which seized the computer, and following the issue of warrant, found other child porn on the hard drive.
Despite the evidence on the machine, Sodomsky's lawyer argued Circuit City employees had no right to search his computer, nor to call the police and ask for suppression.
While a trial judge agreed with the argument, an appellate court overturned the ruling and said Sodomsky's illegal videos were fair game for discovery once the computer left his home and was brought to the Circuit City store, which closed when the entire retail chain went under earlier this year. And now, the Supreme Court has turned down the case (Sodomsky v. Pennsylvania, 08-1274).
