Yet another court case involving nude photos on a cell phone.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a woman claiming Culpeper police officers distributed nude photos of her found on a cell phone seized when her boyfriend was arrested.
U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon of Charlottesville ruled Thursday that Jessica Casella did not have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” because she lent the phone to her boyfriend more than two months before it was seized and offered no evidence that she took measures to ensure the photos were protected.
“She therefore lacked possession, control, and dominion over the phone, as well as the power to exclude others from accessing the information and pictures stored on the phone,” the judge wrote.
Casella and her boyfriend, former Culpeper schoolteacher Nathan Newhard, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville in March against former Sgt. Matt Borders, police Chief Scott Barlow, “unnamed town of Culpeper police officers” and the town of Culpeper Police Department after Newhard was arrested on DUI charges.
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Update: Court opinion can be found here (pdf).