Appeals Court says Taylor County investigators had no right to access detective's DropBox in murder case

The Taylor County Sheriff's Department conducted an illegal search of a detective's DropBox account while investigating that detective's involvement in releasing two confidential murder files to television producers, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled Dec. 29.

Former detective Sgt. Steven Bowers was charged in 2017 with two felony counts of misconduct in public office for reportedly providing the files to producers of the TV show "Cold Justice."

There was an agreement to share one murder file with producers, but not the two others that were distributed through Bowers' DropBox account. He had paid for the account earlier and had set it up using his department email.

Taylor County investigators attempted to search the DropBox, but were unsuccessful, even after reaching out directly to the file storage service, court documents show. They eventually were able to login to the account using a reset link investigators requested and accessed via Bowers’ department email.

Attorneys for Bowers argued their client had a right to privacy as a customer of DropBox. They also argued the search of his account was conducted without a warrant, and that the evidence should be inadmissible.

The state argued investigators needed to move quickly because the files were at risk of being deleted and they didn't have time to request a warrant. They also insisted they had a right to access Bowers' because it was created using his department email.

A circuit court and the Court of Appeals each ruled the state hadn't met the standard for probable cause and exigent circumstances to conduct the search without a warrant. They also ruled Bowers had a right to privacy after paying for the account and that the county didn't have a right to search it.

"We (the Court of Appeals) conclude that the circuit court properly denied the state’s motion for reconsideration of its decision suppressing evidence obtained from a search of Bowers’ account," the ruling stated. "Bowers had both a subjective and objective reasonable expectation of privacy in his account. Therefore, law enforcement engaged in an unlawful search of his Account within the meaning of the fourth amendment, and no exigent circumstances justified a warrantless search of the account."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin court rules against police in stolen murder files case