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Comment by Jackson12 | Hacker News Reader

If a judge issued a warrant for her arrest there must be something there. So idk. Suppose it could still be selective enforcement.

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Unfortunately if anyone were to have their laptop and emails searched with an eye towards coming up with probable cause to make an arrest, no one is safe.

Just as it’s realistically impossible to not break driving laws while behind the wheel, giving pretext to a traffic stop, the same is true if you give people looking to get you a huge swath of your life.

I think the right move is to defer judgment until the charges come out, but it’s a real possibility. Computer crimes are notoriously vulnerable to selective prosecution depending on how much the prosecutors don’t like you; in most states, Florida included, any unauthorized access to any computer system can be charged as a felony.

this is way too optimistic for the US criminal justice system. police and prosecutors regularly lie on warrant applications, and judges regularly grant the flimsiest of justifications for search and arrest warrants. there is no legal accountability whatsoever: the most that defense attorneys can usually do in the case of illegal search warrants is to have the illegally seized evidence excluded; there is no punishment for the state using its immense power to harass and intimidate individuals.

If a cop willfully lies on a warrant they are generally civilly liable. I am by no means saying that no one in the criminal justice systems acts unethically. But if a judge signs a warrant for someone's arrest there is almost always good reason to suspect they committed a crime.

yes, and if a cop murders a civilian they are (supposed to be) liable, but innumerable news stories over the past... long time have shown that not to be the case far too often.

I actually can think of no case where a cop clearly shot someone in bad faith and wasn't ultimately charged. It's much more often the case that the cop has some plausible argument that they made a bad decision in good faith. Which makes the cases very hard to prosecute. It's pretty seldom the case that prosecutors corruptly ignore clear cut misconduct.

There are flaws in the justice system. And by no means is it totally fair. But in this sort of situation, where a judge has seen the evidence and issued a warrant, usually there is usually something there. It's very possible this is selective prosecution. But, I'll bet you a good sum of money at even odds that there's probable cause she committed a crime.

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