On March 30, Boston College police searched the dorm of Riccardo Calixte, A&S '09, and seized, among other computer-related devices, an iPod Touch, a disassembled Blackberry cell phone, a Dell Inspiron, and a MacBook laptop. The warrant for this search and seizure cited "obtaining computer services by fraud or misrepresentation" and "unauthorized access to a computer system" as the offenses that Detective Kevin Christopher of the BC Police Department had probable cause to believe Calixte had committed.
Since then, Calixte has sought legal aid from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an Internet civil liberties advocacy group based in San Francisco, and Fish & Richardson, a Boston legal firm that has taken the case on pro bono.
In an application for a search warrant dated March 30, Christopher sought permission to search Calixte's dorm room for a personal computer, and "all objects capable of storing digital data in any form," as well as computer access codes and passwords. The warrant was granted.
Christopher outlined the basis of probable cause in documents supporting the warrant. He cited a report filed on Jan. 27 by BCPD Officer Brian Eng regarding "domestic issues" between Calixte and a roommate. Christopher reported that at the time this roommate "also advised Officer Eng that Mr. Calixte is involved in some computer hacking incidents," and that he, "has changed grades for other students by accessing the Boston College computer systems."
Christopher wrote that he met with the informant the following day, Jan. 28. "Mr. Calixte was also a suspect in a stolen Boston College laptop computer report I investigated previously." The roommate also suspected Calixte of illegal downloads and Internet use. He also said that he suspects Calixte has tampered with his computer and caused it to crash. "The computer has been looked at by several experts, and none of them can resolve the problem," Christopher said.
The student who brought Calixte to police attention was also recently the victim of an e-mail to several University listservs that said the student was gay and coming out of the closet. Andrew Kessel, attorney for Fish & Richardson, said that there is no reason to believe that the person who did send the e-mail broke either of the laws cited in the search warrant. "We can't see any way that whoever sent those e-mails would have violated either of those statutes," he said.
Spring Break
michaelk42
posted 4/18/09 @ 12:57 PM EST
It would appear that Kevin Christopher has done little more than make himself look like a computer-illiterate fool on a fishing expedition on a national basis. (Continued…)