Best Buy Geek Squad Child Porn Case Dismissed

MISSION VIEJO, CA — Best Buy's Geek Squad technicians may have discovered what they considered an inappropriate photo of a child on a computer in their care back in 2011, but the case against an Orange County physician was dismissed due to an illegal search, according to a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney.

Newport Beach Oncologist Mark Rettenmaier brought his HP Pavilion computer to the Mission Viejo Best Buy Geek Squad, and agreed to have it searched for lost photos in 2011 in what became an explosive case that drew national attention.

A Geek squad tech in the central repair facility in Kentucky--where all computers are sent for photo recovery--discovered a thumbnail photo of a young girl on her knees wearing a choker-type collar in the "unallocated space" on the Newport Beach doctor's hard drive and alerted the FBI. A warrant was written to search the doctor's personal computer and phone for additional photos.

This was not the first time the Geek Squad has tipped off the FBI when they discovered child pornography, according to the Washington Post. The FBI has been known to pay for such findings. A photo stored in unallocated space does not have metadata, and according to the Washington Post, cannot be proved to be possessed by the computer's owner without corroborating evidence.

Rettenmaier's attorney, James D. Riddet, stated that by searching in the unallocated space portion of the computer, the Geek Squad techs were working beyond standard data recovery.

The case gained national attention to the fact that Best Buy will notify authorities if child pornography material is discovered during a repair procedure--a point which customers must sign off on when dropping off their computers--however employees accepting payment for doing so is not the norm, according to a Best Buy spokesperson. Details on what is and is not considered child pornography have also been brought to light.

Though the original photo was labeled child pornography, Carney later ruled that the lone photo was not enough to be considered child pornography. In a report by the Orange County Register, federal guidelines require a strict regimen of lascivious exhibition to be considered child pornography.

That mislabeling, and "several false and misleading statements" led to the FBI search warrant that turned up hundreds of pornographic photos on the doctor's personal computer and iPhone, according to the Washington Post and federal prosecutors, was deemed illegal as the photo in question was considered child erotica, the viewing of which is not considered against the law.

"This one image of child erotica is simply not sufficient to search Dr. Rettenmaier's entire home, the place where the protective force of the Fourth Amendment is the most powerful," Carney stated.

Carney suppressed all evidence that was seized from Rettenmaier's home, including the iphone photos. As the federal prosecutors missed their deadline to file an appeal, they followed up with a motion to dismiss the case.

"Our decision to seek the dismissal was the result of the court suppressing key evidence in the case," said Thom Mrozek, spokesperson for the United States Attorney’s Office, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

Shutterstock photo