Posted on 10/29/2014 10:40:11 AM PDT by Theoria
Federal agents turned off Internet access to three luxury villas at Caesars Palace then impersonated repair technicians to surreptitiously get inside and collect evidence in an investigation of online sports betting, according to defense lawyers challenging the practice.
The FBI employed the ruse against the recommendation of an assistant U.S. attorney, Kimberly Frayn, according to lawyers for four of eight men charged in the case. They filed a motion late Tuesday in federal court in Las Vegas to dismiss evidence in the case. According to a conversation recorded by an investigator for the hotel, the prosecutor told FBI agents "it was a consent issue," the lawyers said.
Under U.S. law, a person whose property is inspected generally must waive his constitutional protections against unreasonable searches unless authorities obtain a warrant. Evidence collected improperly is not supposed to be used at trial.
The FBI in Las Vegas referred questions about the practice to the U.S. Attorney's Office there. Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden, said prosecutors were aware of the allegations being made by defense lawyers but declined to comment, citing a pending trial.
The case was at least the third to surface in recent weeks raising questions about tactics by federal agents pursuing criminal investigations. The Drug Enforcement Administration set up a fake Facebook account using photographs and other personal information it took from the cellphone of a New York woman arrested in a cocaine case in hopes of tricking her friends and associates into revealing incriminating drug secrets. In another case, the FBI sent a fake news story it attributed to The Associated Press to trick a suspect in a bomb-threat case into clicking on the website link and revealing his location.
(Excerpt) Read more at lasvegassun.com ...
I wonder if they posed as repairment to bug that CBS reporter’s Computer and add that extra fibre optic line...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3219999/posts
Remember the first Saturday Night Live skit, where there was a Knock Knock at the door; “Hello?” “Pizza Delivery! Please open the door” Home Occupant looks confused, but crack door a tiny bit, “Pizza delivery? Why, I didn’t order any.....” Next Scene; a Shark gobbles up the home occupant, and has NOT brought any Pizza at all!
‘Land Shark’...
People bet on sports in Las Vegas??!!
WOW who knew
‘Federal agents turned off Internet access to...’
I wondered if they did this with or w/o the help and knowledge of the ISP. That would be interesting to know. At any rate it seems the FBI is hiring from the ATF these days.
"Candy gram."
Great skit. Up there with the "Bass-o-Matic" blender and the medical miracle drug, "Triopenin".
Watergate......................
Filthy fascists.
Paul Drake and Jim Rockford did it on TV ... oh, wait, they weren’t government agents.
What happens in Vegas stays in.... your FBI file for life.
Why is it so difficult for them to just get a damn warrant?
In the time it took them to dream up this hare-brained scheme, which will result only in inadmissible evidence, they surely could have written up the paperwork to get a warrant. Unless, of course, they had no evidence to justify a search in the first place, in which case they shouldn’t have been wasting taxpayer money on a fishing expedition.
Investigative techniques should never be made public, IMO
I don’t have a whole lot of problems with taking scum off the streets...
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