COEUR d’ALENE — The Idaho Supreme Court has vacated a Post Falls man’s conviction for possessing child sexual abuse material because police obtained key evidence against him by unconstitutionally impounding his car.
A jury convicted Chadlen D. ____, 40, of sexual exploitation of a child by possession of sexually exploitative material, a felony, in 2022. He received a 10-year prison sentence, the maximum possible under the law, with parole eligibility after five years.
In a unanimous opinion penned by Justice Cynthia Meyer, the Supreme Court determined that the evidence obtained as a result of impounding Chadlen’s car should have been excluded from the trial.
“Without this improperly obtained evidence, the state’s case against Chadlen for sexual exploitation of a child collapses,” Meyer wrote.
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Police cited department policy as the reason for impounding the car Chadlen had parked in the lot at City Hall. Attorneys for Chadlen argued that the impoundment violated his Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure and that any evidence obtained as a result of the impoundment should be suppressed.
The Supreme Court found that the state did not show that the decision to impound Smith’s vehicle “served a community caretaking purpose,” making the impoundment unreasonable and unconstitutional.
Never ever ever never ever trust the police. This dude’s first clue was that they were giving him his phone back. Fat chance on that!
Who will get the blame for letting this weirdo go? Not the lazy police. No, it’s those darn liberal judges, who just ruled that the police violated a citizen’s 4th amendment rights.
What will happen with all the Project Prism convictions, I wonder? Evidence came to light as part of the Snowden papers that NSA had been turning over evidence of criminal behaviors they found through their illegal surveillance to various Federal Agencies for years. DEA was the primary beneficiary, but others got info too.
No telling how many people that got the ball rolling for.
Then there is this…. Register this man anyway? The official State lies are that it is not punishment, simply a Civil Regularity Scheme, so technically no conviction is necessary.
How much longer until that becomes true? I have little doubt that the Kren & Daren Squad are already calling for that, but how much longer until they are pandered to? Cops can’t get you convicted for anything they find after they kick down your door, but registered is possible?
10 years from now, with no evidence this man made any attempt to harm a child, will be explained away with what lies? The standard, “We presume that he did!”, perhaps?
Nice persuasive precedent there…
Even if we don’t consider all the constitutional violations concerning impounding his car. Why are people getting 10 year prison sentences for having images of child erotica & nudity? Child erotica and child pornography are two different things…I think