14 DAY TRIAL // Gizmodo’s Jason Chen, the blogger who posted images of an iPhone prototype without Apple’s consent, has reportedly hired a criminal lawyer, after police raided his home to search his computers. His site’s owner, Gawker Media, has acted in a similar manner, in retaining a First Amendment specialist on the matter of police searching computers belonging to Chen.
Law.com reports that Gizmodo’s Jason Chen has hired an expert criminal lawyer going by the name of Thomas Nolan Jr. He is reportedly a veteran criminal defense attorney from Nolan, Armstrong & Barton in Palo Alto, California. Nolan reportedly said that he didn't know whether or not Chen was the target of the investigation. His exact words were, “I don't know whether he's the target of the criminal probe or whether they're trying to get information about sources from him,” and he added that, “There's a serious question about the propriety of issuing a search warrant for a journalist.”
In this respect, Gawker Media itself (which owns the Gizmodo tech-site) has also hired a certain Thomas Burke, a First Amendment specialist from Davis Wright Tremaine. The investigating officers who searched computers belonging to Mr. Chen have reportedly been approached by Burke and his employers, in order to clarify if California’s ‘Shield Law,’ which protects journalists and their sources, held water here.
“The California Penal Code says you can't issue a search warrant for information that's protected by the shield law,” Burke said on Tuesday. According to the Law.com report, Burke even went to say that, if the San Mateo prosecutors proceeded with searching the computers from the raid, he would file a motion to stop them. He backed his claims by pointing to Penal Code §1524(g), which states that, “No warrant shall issue for any item or items described in Section 1070 of the Evidence Code.” - basically the shield law that protects journalists from being forced to turn over unpublished material and their sources.
The police had reportedly identified and interviewed the person who originally got hold of the prototype iPhone, the San Jose Business Journal reported on Tuesday. In the meanwhile, other reports claim that authorities have been able to track down the “middle-man” in the iPhone 4G fiasco, an alleged student, who reportedly sold the device to Gizmodo for $5,000.