Ex-cop is jailed until he reveals computer passwords; appeal claims Fifth Amendment violation
A former Philadelphia police officer is arguing a federal magistrate had no authority to send him to prison for refusing to reveal passwords to two encrypted computer hard drives.
The former officer, Francis Rawls, has not been charged with a crime. He has been held in jail for seven months after the magistrate found him in contempt of court. The magistrate said Rawls will have to remain incarcerated until he reveals the passwords. Ars Technica, Gizmodo and the Washington Post have stories.
The hard drives were apparently seized as part of a child pornography investigation involving users of a file-sharing website called Freenet, according to a motion (PDF) asking the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the contempt order pending appeal.
The government sought to compel Rawls to produce the drives “in an unencrypted state” under the All Writs Act of 178. The federal government cited the same law in its bid to get Apple to unlock the cellphone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. The law authorizes federal judges to “issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.”
Rawls’ federal public defender argues in the stay motion that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction in advance of potential criminal charges, and the order violates his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
