The Search Warrant
3 On July 6, 2009, Tioga County Sheriff’s Department Senior Investigator Patrick
4 Hogan (“Hogan”) applied to the Owego Town Court for a warrant to search Galpin’s residence,
5 person, and vehicles for, inter alia, cameras, computers, cell phones, and any and all computing
6 or data processing software, “which may reveal evidence which substantiates violations of Penal
7 Law statutes, Corrections Law statutes and or Federal statutes.” Warrant Appl. 1, July 6, 2009.
8 In the warrant application, Hogan set forth the details of the investigation, including observed
9 interactions and communications with young males, and the fact that an internet provider had
10 revealed in response to a subpoena that the subscriber I.P. address associated with the “Medic
11 Guy” posting belonged to Galpin.
12 Based on this information, Hogan concluded in his application that Galpin was
13 “engaged in the use of the internet via MySpace and chat to lure juvenile males to the residence
14 for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct, . . . using [his] cell phone to make contact with
15 and direct the pickup of juveniles, . . . [and] transport[ing] juvenile males to his residence.”
16 Warrant Appl. 2. Citing his training and experience, Hogan further proffered that “persons
17 involved in child sexual exploitation use the internet, cell phones and practices of becoming
1 juvenile friendly to groom juveniles for the purpose of engaging in sexual behavior with
2 children.” Warrant Appl. 2. In addition, Hogan made the following claim:
3 (I)t is reasonable to expect that upon execution of this warrant evidence will be
4 obtained that James Galpin Jr. is using his computer or other device[s] capable of
5 accessing the World Wide Web to include but not limited to computer’s [sic], cell
6 phones, game systems or ipod’s [sic] capable of communicating with other
7 persons, to post, chat, text, sending pictures or video’s [sic], or talk live and
8 evidence of such will be located at the residence or on the person, or vehicle of
9 James Galpin, Jr.
10 Warrant Appl. 3. Finally, again citing his training and experience, Hogan asserted that “persons
11 who engage in sexual predator behaviors do not provide current e-mail address’s [sic], user
12 names or passwords on their sexual offender registration to avoid detection of illegal activities
13 by Law Enforcement and to divert Law Enforcement to a plausible or legitimate e-mail which do
14 [sic] not contain any of the subjects [sic] illicit activities.” Warrant Appl. 3.
15 Upon being presented with the application, Town of Owego Justice Robert W.
16 Henning issued a warrant to search Galpin’s residence, vehicle, and person for property
17 “believed to contain evidence that will constitute, substantiate or support violations of NYS
18 Corrections Law, section 168-f subdivision four, NYS Penal Law and or Federal Statutes.”
19 Warrant 1, July 6, 2009. More specifically, the warrant, which did not incorporate the
20 application, authorized the seizure and subsequent search of:
21 1) Any Computers, central processing units, external and internal drives, storage
22 units or media terminals and video display units, together with peripheral
23 equipment such as keyboards, printers, modems, scanners or digital camera’s [sic]
24 and their internal or external storage media.
25
26 2) Any and all computing or data processing software, or data including but not
27 limited to hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic tapes, intregal [sic] RAM or ROM
28 units, and any other permanent or portable storage device(s) which may reveal
29 evidence and substantiates violations of the aforementioned NYS and federal
30 statutes.
1 3) The following records and documents, whether contained or stored on the
2 computer, magnetic tape, cassette, disk, diskette, photo optical device, or any
other storage medium: 34
5 a. Any access numbers, passwords, personal identification numbers
6 (PINS), logs, notes, memoranda and correspondence relating to
7 computer, electronic and voice mail systems, internet address’s
[sic] and/or related contacts.
8
9
10 b. Any computing or data processing literature, including, but not
11 limited to printed copy, instruction books, notes, papers, or listed
12 computer programs, in whole or in part.
13
14 c. Any audio or video cassette tape recordings, books magazines [sic],
15 periodicals, or other recorded or printed material, the possession
16 of which constitutes a violation of the aforementioned statutes of
17 the Laws of New York state or Federal Statutes.
18
19 d. Any and all photographs depicting sexual conduct by a child
20 and/or minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
21
22 e. Any records or correspondence relating to the possession,
23 transmission, collection, trading or production of the
24 aforementioned photographs.
25 Id.
http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/56edd441-4e7a-4430-8c29-653793f6eb7d/1/doc/11-4808_opn.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/56edd441-4e7a-4430-8c29-653793f6eb7d/1/hilite/
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