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Arrested Man Snags Pics Of Cops Allegedly Searching His iPhone Without Subpoena
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 2, 2012
Modified Oct 2, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 2, 2012
Modified Oct 2, 2012
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Remember the guy who got a ticket for running a red light while his vehicle was in police custody? His story gets weirder. In August, Rashad Lewis got a ticket in the mail for running a red light on a day when he was in jail and his Mercedes-Benz was supposed to be impounded—he alleges that police took his car for a joyride after pulling him over outside Bloomingdales on a routine traffic violation and finding allegedly bogus credit cards. Now Lewis claims the cops also tried to take his iPhone for an illegal joyride, and he says he's got the pics to prove it.
Lewis shared the photos with DNAinfo, and says they were emailed to him through an app called IGotYa, which automatically snaps photos of anyone trying to use the phone without the correct access code and emails them to the phone's owner. Police are required to obtain a subpoena to search someone's phone except in cases of action movie-level emergency, like when "terrorists" seize Nakatomi Plaza or Papa John's has an urgent pizza special. Credit card fraud doesn't typically fall into this category.
Police sources tell DNAinfo the plainclothes cops "may have only been trying to shut off Lewis's phone and not trying to peer into his personal data." As for the joyride allegation, the NYPD insists Lewis’s car was being transferred to another police facility when it got the red-light summons. But Lewis's lawyer says the photo that came with the summons shows the Benz was traveling southbound heading toward Brooklyn, not in the direction of the NYPD facility in Sunnyside, Queens where Lewis ultimately retrieved. His lawyer also says the dude's car got a little dinged up.
Tagged
cops
iphones
joyrides
nypd
police
Rashad Lewis
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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