I can't comment on his guilt in this.
but where is the chain of custody for this computer, such that someone at the repair place at best buy couldn't copy those photos off a floppy to his system? and why are the repair techs scouring his hard drive for photos (of any kind) anyway?
You are right and he will probably be found innocent or the charges dropped because of what you point out. Unfortunately, the damages has been done. He may make a penny or two of Best Buy, though.
They always do. They snoop at everything, your internet history, documents, pictures, emails, etc.
If you would be bothered by your mom, dad, wife/husband, employer, the police, priest/rabbi, or children knowing that you have anything in particular on your computer - or having it freed into the wild:
Don't put it there in the first place.
Otherwise, if you have documents, images, movies, or whatever that you want to keep private, of all things, DO NOT let a computer tech near your computer. I have enough friends in the business to know that the only thing stopping them from snooping would be you standing behind them during the repair.
It's an interesting question. Why would somebody that would have had to know that such pics were on his system, take said system to Best Buy without removing them first?
Unless he didn't know they were there.
It does remain the world's most perfect way to ruin somebody. Just copy a few files over into some place where they're unlikely to notice... the presumption of guilt in these sorts of cases is so strong that there is simply no chance that their reputation will ever recover.
True - and what about the various virus attacks and pop-up junk? Do any of those have porn on them? (Not sure anymore, I've got my IE beefed up from 4 directions and rarely see any advertising) If it's advertising with pictures then almost anyone without adequate internet security could get caught and accused even if they never saw the photos themselves.
I have no clue who this guy is, I can't recall hearing the name before. I would hate to see him burn for something he wasn't guilty of, though.
As far as repair techs looking at the stuff on a hard drive, I don't know why they do it. I do know that even though I don't have anything illegal on my computer, I will fix it myself. (Or have my husband do it if it's above my level of knowledge) I don't need other people seeing the pictures of my kids, seeing my contact list, my political leanings, anything that isn't their business. I'll buy a new drive and copy stuff onto floppies before letting non-family have that access. (That's why I have a back up on cd of all critical and personal info.)
I would expect that a forensic investigation of his computer would reveal when those files might have been written.
Further investigation should reveal if additional files exist (hidden, encrypted, erased, cached, etc..) and if there is a history of use or access to these files.
Otherwise, I would think that a good defense lawyer would have him out before the sun set.
This is infuriating. The flippant attitude to which you are AUTOMATICALLY assigning blame to the technicians is despicable. Try http://www.knwa.com or perhaps some other local news station's website.
BETTER YET... Why not READ the frikken PRESS RELEASE FROM THE ARRESTING POLICE DEPARTMENT. It is public freaking record now.
These people did THE RIGHT THING. And they don't go looking for this filth, they don't go looking for anything except what they're told to. If they happen across something that SHOULDN'T be there, they can only do what they must.
It isn't a technician's fault that some joker's computer goes down due to (insert unfortunate computer crippling incident here) and is asked to fix it. If in the course of fixing the problem the technician happens across something horrendously illegal, again this is NOT the technician's fault.
Instead of lashing out at the technicians who were merely doing their JOB, and in the course of doing their job, did THE RIGHT THING, why not do a bit of research.
If the man is innocent (which, read the press release, he is NOT), then by all means he should be aquitted, HOWEVER. Even if he were innocent, good could come of this because the download location of that trash WILL be there (trust me, if it got on there, then HOW it got there is ALSO known), and (assuming it's hosted in an area where the US could do something about it) it WILL be taken down, and those responsible for hosting it WILL be taken down.
These people should be viewed, at the very least, as people simply trying to do what's right. At best, heroes. Not slandered as privacy invading malicious frame-artists.
/rant OFF