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Judge Orders Gizmodo Search Warrant Unsealed
gyrogeerloose writes "The same judge who issued the warrant to search Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's apartment has now ordered it unsealed, ruling against the San Mateo County district attorney's office which had argued that unsealing the documents may compromise the investigation."
You can read the entire affidavit here (PDF). It has a detailed description of the police investigation that led to the seizure of Chen's computers. It turns out Steve Jobs personally requested that the phone be returned, prompting Gizmodo's Brian Lam to try negotiating for a public acknowledgment that the phone was real. Apple was tipped off to the man who found/stole the prototype by his roommate.
After reading that document I'm convinced Hogan lifted the phone from Gray's bag. He knew from the moment he had it that it was stolen, he told his roommate as much and that's the reason she turned him in because she didn't want to be convicted for being involved. The warrant also lists that when lost the phone was actually inside a 3GS case, a case that was removed and discarded by Brian Hogan along with some stickers indicating the serial number. Something he no doubt removed to conceal the origin until sale. He got $8500 for the phone from two separate organizations. And the best part is the "friend" Brian Hogan called to throw away all the evidence of the crime (also a crime) had two warrants out for his arrest.
Next Gizmodo takes the phone apart and rips a ribbon cable in half, strips the screws and shorts the phone out by putting a screw in wrong and hitting the circuit board. So not only did they pay for stolen property, publish trade secrets (and admit to as much in an email to Jobs) but they destroyed the prototype.
It gives me a rich satisfaction to read this warrant as it's clear right now that at least two people are going to be convicted. Hogan and Chen are going to be convicted and they can probably get the Gizmodo editor (for involvement in the transfer of stolen property and blackmail) and Hogan's friend that helped dispose of evidence (nice big felony conviction). The best part is Hogan's roommate is going to be testifying against him. Not only do they have all the physical evidence and likely all the email and stuff but they also have personal witness testimony. It's pretty much a slam dunk case to convict Hogan.
As for all the people saying the cops wouldn't do this if it wasn't Appl,e really don't understand stolen property cases. When the police are handed slam dunk cases like this they always follow through. You want the cops to investigate your stolen property case have the thief admit to the theft to a witness who goes to the police, have him sell the stolen property to someone who then publishes all about the theft in public and sends then evidence of the crime to owner. That's what happened in this case, it's a damn near perfect case and that's why it's being investigated so heavily by the police, it's a guaranteed conviction, being Apple is involved plays a small part but the biggest factor is how easy the evidence collection is. The funny thing is property theft cases are usually concentrated in a small number of individuals, I personally wouldn't be surprised if in the search of Hogan's apartment they find other stolen property and find out he goes to bars and lifts people's property quite frequently and end up solving many theft cases.