He didn’t give police his iPhone pass code, so he got 180 days in jail

A Hollywood man must serve 180 days in jail for refusing to give up his iPhone password to police, a Broward judge ruled Tuesday — the latest salvo in intensifying legal battles over law-enforcement access to smart phones.

Christopher Wheeler, 41, was taken into custody in a Broward Circuit Court, insisting he had already provided the pass code to police investigating him for child abuse, although the number did not work.

“I swear, under oath, I’ve given them the password,” a distraught Wheeler, his hands handcuffed behind his back, told Circuit Judge Michael Rothschild, who earlier in May found the man guilty of contempt of court.

As Wheeler was jailed Tuesday, the same issue was unfolding in Miami-Dade for a man accused of extorting a social-media celebrity over stolen sex videos.

That man, Wesley Victor, and his girlfriend had been ordered by a judge to produce a pass code to phones suspected of containing text messages showing their collusion in the extortion plot.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Charles Johnson ruled that there was no way to prove that Victor actually remembered his pass code, more than 10 months after his initial arrest. Johnson declined to hold the man in contempt of court.

Wheeler will eventually be allowed to post bond pending an appeal. If he gives up a working pass code, he’ll be allowed out of jail, Judge Rothschild told him.

The only reason he remains in jail is the passcode.

In the old days, a judge could issue a warrant and officers would search businesses or a residence looking for evidence.

I think phone data could be seen pretty much like that. There is a difference though.

Phones almost come closer to a diary today than simply a stack of papers or documents. They are in our hands constantly. They are almost an extension of our brains.

We reference them constantly. We make notes to ourselves. We can keep PDFs and other personal documents in them.

When a judge issues a subpoena, he's opening up the whole phone to law enforcement, not just certain documents. You have to review a lot of things on the phone to rule out what isn't relevant, and that can open you up to expanded charges depending on what authorities run into.

What if in 50 years scientists do develop the ability to incorporate memory and apps onto circuitry that can be implanted into our bodies, to augment our mental abilities?

If this takes place, will the courts then have the right to subpoena that circuitry, in effect accessing our mental cognitive existence?

At what point do these types of things become in effect a part of our being? Will it have to be implanted first? Will that ever be a consideration?

I'm not convinced this guy is the best example, but if we advocate for his most private of information to be accessed over his objection, can't our privacy be accessed too for less once a precedent is set?

I'm not real sure I want our courts to go there.

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