NEW
YORK (Reuters) - For the first time, a federal judge has suppressed
evidence obtained without a warrant by U.S. law enforcement using a
stingray, a surveillance device that can trick suspects' cell phones
into revealing their locations.
U.S. District
Judge William Pauley in Manhattan on Tuesday ruled that defendant
Raymond Lambis' rights were violated when the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration used such a device without a warrant to find his
Washington Heights apartment.
The DEA had used a
stingray to identify Lambis' apartment as the most likely location of a
cell phone identified during a drug-trafficking probe. Pauley said
doing so constituted an unreasonable search.
"Absent a search warrant, the government may not turn a citizen's cell phone into a tracking device," Pauley wrote.
The
ruling marked the first time a federal judge had suppressed evidence
obtained using a stingray, according to the American Civil Liberties
Union, which like other privacy advocacy groups has criticized law
enforcement's use of such devices.
"This
opinion strongly reinforces the strength of our constitutional privacy
rights in the digital age," ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler said in a
statement.
It was unclear whether prosecutors
would seek to appeal. A spokeswoman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet
Bharara, whose office was prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
A telecommunications tower managed by American Tower is seen in Golden, Colorado February 25, 2014.Rick Wilking
Stingrays,
also known as "cell site simulators," mimic cell phone towers in order
to force cell phones in the area to transmit "pings" back to the
devices, enabling law enforcement to track a suspect's phone and
pinpoint its location.
Critics of the
technology call it invasive and say it has been regularly used in secret
to catch suspect in violation of their rights under the U.S.
Constitution.
The ACLU has counted 66 agencies
in 24 states and the District of Columbia that own stingrays but said
that figure underrepresents the actual number of devices in use given
what it called secrecy surrounding their purchases.
A
Maryland appeals court in March became what the ACLU said was the first
state appellate court to order evidence obtained using a stingray
suppressed. Pauley's decision was the first at the federal level.
The
U.S. Justice Department in September changed its internal policies and
required government agents to obtain a warrant before using a cell site
simulator.
Bernard Seidler, Lambis' lawyer,
noted that occurred a week after his client was charged. He said it was
unclear if the drug case against Lambis would now be dismissed.
(This
version of the story corrects location of apartment in second paragraph
to Washington Heights from the Bronx, rephrases paragraph 10 to make
clear ACLU said its figure underrepresents number of devices)
Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman