CA1: Child porn search warrants

US v. Syphers, No. 04-2438, affirms the denial of a motion to suppress some child pornography.  The affidavit for the search warrant was sworn out by an investigator that didn’t know much about child pornography, and didn’t contain any information that would let a judge know why the officer thought some images were child pornography.  (As an aside state charges were resolved, and before reaching a plea agreement, a mistrial was declared.)  The court, however, affirms the denial of the motion to suppresse based on the “good faith exception” and hints that “The best practice is for an applicant seeking a warrant based on images of alleged child pornography to append the images or provide a sufficiently specific description of the images to enable the magistrate judge to determine independently whether they probably depict real children.”  Finally, the court concludes that a 12-month extension of a search warrant, in order to search a computer for pornography wasn’t unreasonable, and such a request can be made by a motion without an affidavit.