Judge Block
http://nycourts.law.com/CourtDocumentViewer.asp?view=Document&docID=117295
DEFENDANT Tannin was charged with conspiracy, and securities and wire fraud in connection with hedge funds managed for Bear Stearns Asset Management. An FBI agent’s July 7, 2009, application for a warrant to search Tannin’s personal e-mail incorporated the indictment, which alluded to an excerpt of an April 22, 2007, e-mail to codefendant Cioffi. The April 22 e-mail was eventually turned over to the SEC. Pursuant to the warrant, prosecutors searching Tannin’s personal e-mail recovered his Nov. 23, 2006, e-mail to himself that devoted several paragraphs to his anxiety about work and the state of the stock market. Granting suppression, the court barred the government’s use of the Nov. 23, 2006, e-mail in its case in chief. The search warrant was unconstitutionally broad under United States v. George because it did not limit, on its face, the items to be seized from Tannin’s personal e-mail to e-mails containing evidence of the indicted-for crimes, or indeed, any crime at all. Discussing United States v. Whitehorn and distinguishing United States v. Cabassa, the district court deemed the “inevitable discovery” doctrine inapplicable to the Nov. 23, 2006, e-mail.
