Property seizure Texas

[meta867]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

I turned over my daughters phone and laptop to the police so they could investigate her being exploited online. Now that they have the items they say they can not be returned. Federal law says they have to be destroyed. Is this true and and should they not have told me this before I voluntarily turned them over.

 

[Mt_Vernon]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

I turned over my daughters phone and laptop to the police so they could investigate her being exploited online. Now that they have the items they say they can not be returned. Federal law says they have to be destroyed. Is this true and and should they not have told me this before I voluntarily turned them over.

I don't know what the law says about this, but I would suggest to you that you get an attorney RIGHT NOW and get an injunction from a judge against the authorities, to prevent them from destroying the equipment.

Every second counts!

 

[CavemanLawyer]

It sounds like they found images or video constituting child pornography on the phone and/or laptop. I don't want to insinuate anything about your daughter but if she used the phone/laptop to create or send naked pictures of herself and she is under 18, then these devices do in fact contain child porn. Any device that has child porn on it is considered contraband and can be seized and destroyed. It is possible to forensically wipe a phone or computer (actually not hard at all) to copy over all data making it safe to turn back over to the original owner. More often then not with something like a computer or laptop they just destroy the hard drive and return the rest. It sounds like maybe they just aren't willing to go through these hassles.

I don't know what federal law they would be referring to other than the federal child pornography law. Whether under the federal law or the Texas equivalent, either way they can't release a phone or computer with child porn on it back to the owner because then you would be in violation of those laws yourself.

Did they say you can never get the phone back or just while the investigation is pending? Usually phones are released back to owners but not until the case is concluded.