Something I currently working on. Please note it is not done yet
I. Background
On March 16th, 2018, an anonymous individual posting on a forum called Hate and Flame as Todd Daugherty made a threat against a school in Daugherty hometown of Taylorville.
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On March 17th, 2018, the Taylorville Police arrested Todd Daugherty on making a threat against a building and or public official, and Terrorism. At the police station the police questioned Daugherty about the threat and Daugherty informed the officers that he doesn’t post on that site, and that the site in question required no login and that anyone can pretend to be anyone. The police however believed differently informing Daugherty “You would see that as a threat right” which Daugherty said “Yeah” “and that’s your name right?” which Daugherty again said “Yes” “Then a reasonable person would believe that you posted it” Daugherty again stated he doesn’t post on that site and that the site require no login requirement and that anyone can post as anyone. The police didn’t verify if Daugherty was telling the truth or not, instead they charged him and sent him to the county jail. As far as the police was concerned, he did, case closed.
On March 21st, 2018, the police obtained a warrant to search Daugherty’s computers for the following thing:
1. Peer to peer file trading software
2. Any and all information pertaining to dates and times of access to computer
3. Any and all information pertaining to Internet searches pertaining to posts regarding threats of violence directed toward schools or public official
4. Records and other items which evidence ownership or use of computer equipment found in the above residence including but not limited to sales receipts, bills for Internet access and handwritten notes.
5. records evidencing occupancy or ownership of then premises described above including but not limited to utility and telephone bills, mail envelopes or address correspondence
The P2P file trading software was actually Tor. Tor is a program to allows users to surf the web anonymously. The system (Tor) uses P2P to allow the masking of one IP address. The threat against the school was posted through TOR. Daugherty IP address was not attached to the threat a Tor IP was.
While Daugherty sat in county jail more threats were being posted as him on the Hate and Flame site, which was impossible because Taylorville County jail doesn’t have Internet access. Also, at the time on the social media website YouTube an individual posted a video apparently talking to an individual stating that they did it and that they were the ones who put Daugherty in jail. YouTube removed the video claiming it violated their terms of service, however the state and the local police was aware of the video as was Daugherty and his lawyer and the state had it removed.
On April 16th, 2018, the charges against Daugherty were dismissed and “Any warrants or summons previously issued are hereby quashed” On the news the State’s Attorney stated as he did in the motion to dismiss that:
1. During the investigation the learned that the site required no login, and anyone can post as anyone.
2. While Daugherty sat in jail more post was being posted as him, which was impossible since county doesn’t have Internet access.
3. Going through the logs of his computer and his ISP there was evidence that Daugherty posted the threat.
Daugherty asked for his computer back (which the police had since March 21st) and the was told they weren’t done with them. A year later Daugherty again asked, and the state stated the FBI has them as weren’t done with them and this went on up to early 2022. Daugherty would later learn that that the FBI would get the computers until 2020. So, the police had the computers from March 21st, 2018, to sometime 2020. The FBI would search the computers and would find nothing that linked him with the threat. After they were unable to find anything regarding the threat, the FBI then proceeded to look for other “contraband” on Daugherty computer. Whereby they found over 1,000 images. One of the images they had found was identified as child pornography. The FBI stopped the search and then proceeded to get a warrant, so that they would be in compliance with the 4th Amendment. After finding more images they then took what they found the US Attorney office to see if they wanted to prosecute Daugherty. The US Attorney declined to prosecute so the FBI handed it back to the State in 2021, with the new information that they had discovered on Daugherty computer. On September 14, 2022, Daugherty was arrested at his has for child Pornography. At the pretrial Daugherty was informed of the crime and a description of the image, and Daugherty did and still does not know of that image or where that image game from. It was also at pretrial that officer Dorwart of the Illinois State Police informed the court of the timeline as mentioned above and that the Taylorville Police Department was for years trying to go after him for child pornography.
II. Legal Argument
Todd Daugherty is bringing the following legal arguments to the court.
1. Original Charges Were Dismissed
The original charges which Daugherty was charged for were dismissed by the court because evidence should that 1. The site required no login, and anyone can post as anyone 2. Daugherty was apparently being setup someone on that site because they continued to post as Daugherty, making more threats when Daugherty was in jail with no Internet access and 3. The logs from Daugherty’s ISP and the Hate and Flame website proved hat Daugherty was no on the site. Those three things proved that the state couldn’t reach beyond a reasonable doubt. It was also learned later that there was no TOR or any similar program on Daugherty computer. Not to mention the YouTube video which was later removed where individuals admitting to posting the threat and having Daugherty put in jail.
2. The Quashed Warrant
Next is the issue regarding the warrant, the original warrant was dismissed, when the 2018 charges were dismissed and “Any warrants or summons previously issued are hereby quashed” When the 2018 charges were dismissed the police had no reason to hold on to, let alone search those computers. In fact, them searching the computers without a valid warrant is a clear violation of the 4th Amendment. The second warrant that was issued by a federal judge after the illegal search should have never been issued because the FBI nor the police had a valid reason to have those computers, since the charges which Daugherty computer was seized for (threatening a school) was dismissed. The FBI, the State and local police clearly violated the 4th Amendment. The Police Department and the state should have returned the computers, when the charges were dismissed. Instead, the police department felt that Daugherty was the one who posted the threat, in fact, they went on local news stating “once the FBI gets done with those computers it will become clear who posted those threats” despite evidence showing that Daugherty was in innocent as mentioned above. The police believed Daugherty was guilty from day one, in fact the police didn’t even verify if the site required a login or not when Daugherty told them the night he was arrested, it was the state and Daugherty attorney that did that.
On the April 16th dismissal the state mentioned why the charges were dismissed and the Motion to Dismiss also states on page two “Any warrants or summons previously issued are hereby quashed”. The word here is ANY which means “1. used to refer to one or some of a thing or number of things, no matter how much or how many 2. used to express a lack of restriction in selecting one of a specified class. (Oxford Dictionary) According to Black’s Law Dictionary ANY means Some; out of many; an indefinite number (See Doherty v King, Tex Civ. App.,183 S.W.2d 1004, 1007. “"Any" does not necessarily mean only one person but may have reference to more than one or to many. “) Although Doherty v King (Texas Court of Appeal 1944) had to do with school elections the courts has repeatedly defined what ANY means, as it did in that case. If the court didn’t want the search warrant to be quashed, then the judge should have stated that in the motion to dismiss. Instead, the judge dismissed the charges against Daugherty and stated ANY warrants or summons previously issued are hereby quashed. Meaning ALL the warrants and summons were quashed Without a warrant the search of the computers was illegal. (Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 US Supreme Court (1967)
