James Nash reports:
Police may be able to take cell phones from people they arrest, but that doesn’t give them the right to scroll through call logs in search of incriminating information without a warrant, a defense attorney told the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday.
Justices questioned the lawyer on whether it was necessary for police to immediately search the contents of a suspected drug dealer’s cell phone in order to prevent listings from the call logs from disappearing.
The case, the first of its kind to reach Ohio’s highest court, revolves around whether a cell phone is a simple “container,” which police may search without a warrant, or more like a computer, which requires a warrant.
Craig M. Jaquith, the attorney for convicted Dayton-area drug dealer Antwaun Smith, argued that cell phones are akin to computers.
Read more in The Columbus Dispatch.