Thank goodness there is at least 1 honest Federal judge out there.
From the LVRJ:
A federal judge ruled Friday that FBI agents violated a wealthy Malaysian businessman’s privacy rights when they entered his Caesars Palace villa posing as repairmen to secretly gather evidence before conducting a raid in an international sports betting investigation.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon also upheld a federal magistrate judge’s recommendation to toss out evidence in the high-profile case because of misrepresentations and omissions FBI agents made in a search warrant affidavit seeking permission to raid the multimillion-dollar betting operation last July.
The businessman, Paul Phua, is facing illegal gambling charges stemming from the raid.
“It’s a great day for American citizens and Mr. Phua in that the rights of privacy and freedom were upheld by the court,” said David Chesnoff, one of Phua’s lawyers.
Chesnoff and fellow defense attorneys Thomas Goldstein and Richard Schonfeld had argued that the ruse was unconstitutional. Gordon agreed in his 22-page decision on Friday.
Gordon said the unprecedented ruse took away Phua’s Fourth Amendment rights to be free from “unreasonable” searches and seizures, and the judge barred prosecutors from using any evidence agents obtained as a result of it.
“This case tests the boundaries of how far the government can go when creating a subterfuge to access a suspect’s premises,” Gordon wrote. “Here the government disrupted the Internet service to the defendant’s hotel room in order to generate a repair call. Government agents then posed as repairmen to gain access to the defendant’s room and conduct a surreptitious search for evidence of an illegal sports betting operation.
“By creating the need for a third party to enter the defendant’s premises and then posing as repairmen to gain entry, the government violated the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights.” http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/federal-judge-declares-fbi-ruse-violated-gambler-s-privacy-rights
Luckily for this guy, he was able to hire some bright lawyers.
How many more people have been indicted because of FBI corruption and they didn't have a decent lawyer to help them out?
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