People v. Joseph Michael Wilkinson

Joseph Wilkinson (defendant) shared an apartment with Jessica Schultze. Schultze’s boyfriend, Harry Sadler, found a video on Schultze’s computer that showed Sadler in Schultze’s room. Sadler discovered that the webcam attached to Schultze’s computer had been moved to point at the bed and video files had been deleted from the computer. Sadler and Schultze complained to the police that Wilkinson was using the webcam to record them. Sadler told police officer James Walker he intended to look for evidence in Wilkinson’s room. Walker said Sadler could pick up anything lying around in the apartment. Sadler took 15 to 20 CDs from Wilkinson’s room. Nothing indicated the CDs’ contents. Sadler viewed some of the CDs, found images of Schultze and Sadler, took all the CDs he could find in Wilkinson’s room, and viewed five to seven more CDs containing images of himself and Schultze naked or engaged in sexual activity. Sadler showed Walker images on two CDs. Walker said he needed to see more explicit images. Sadler reviewed seven to 10 more CDs and showed Walker three or four. Walker seized 36 CDs Sadler removed from Wilkinson’s room. Another officer viewed images on several CDs, but no evidence indicated whether they were limited to those Sadler had viewed. Wilkinson pled no contest to a burglary charge after his motion to suppress was denied. On appeal, Wilkinson argued that the CDs were closed containers, the contents of which were not in plain view, and the police impermissibly expanded the scope of Sadler’s private search by viewing images Sadler had not previously viewed.