Temporary Roommate Cause Police to Raid our House

[LillFilly]

I live in a house with 2-roommates; Roommate 1 is the lease holder, because we rent the home from his mother, the owner.

A few months ago Roommate 1 let a friend stay at the house while he starts school and looks for an apartment. Friend has always been very helpful around the house, etc.

Today I come home to a busted-down door and a ransacked house; apparently, the state attorney general had issued a warrant to search the house under suspicious of child exploitation (porn). The warrant was in the name of Roommate 2 because the internet is in his name (But all of us in the house use this network via secured wifi).
Apparently, they had tracked some downloads to this address and Roommate 2's account.

The description of the downloads they were looking for were....horrible. Horrible, horrible videos involving children.

Once they checked all the computers in the home and roommate 2 arrived, they confirmed that what they were looking for was on friend's computer only and so amended the warrant for friend and seized his computer.

They found the stuff on the computer pretty quickly, but the rest of the house got a pretty good shakedown; and they were not too gentle about some things.
There is some damage; I just finished spending 4-hours cleaning one room. We will need a new front door and new locks.

We will probably see our address in the paper in a news article.
I am worried about losing my job by being associated with this.
It's a complete feeling of violation to have helped this guy out and gotten screwed.
I don't know if he realized that what he was doing would affect all of use.

Luckily, the officers did not believe any of us were involved and were actually rather friendly with Roommate 2 in the end because he was very helpful.

In an amazing coincidence, friend is out of state with friends. We contacted him but he claimed complete surprise and that it's a misunderstanding. We want him out of the house within the week; orders direct from Roommate 1's mother.
I do not want myself, my roommate or my home associated with this guy.

I don't know if I should tell my job in case they find out some other way.
Also, the tearing apart of the computers destroyed several hard drives belonging to Roommate 2, containing files essential for his business.
You can't sue the police for damage done during the execution of a warrant, so we're considering suing friend; only he doesn't have any money, although his parents are well off.

We're wondering about contacting a lawyer to either get him to pay or perhaps put a lien on his car. I just don't know.

I've been a straight arrow, goody-two-shoes working security jobs all my life and now I'm embroiled with this. I don't know how we can fix things and move on and try to lessen the impact to us.

Sorry for the length, but this was a huge shock to walk home to. I'm only grateful that our dog stayed in my bedroom through all this and didn't get hurt.

(Mod Edit to break up text for easier reading. )

[csquared]

Contacting a lawyer would be an excellent idea. A lawyer should be able to advice you on how to handle all of your concerns about the job, the media, etc. They would also be able to tell you if you can get any money out of the friend.

[Pixilated]

Contacting a lawyer would be an excellent idea. A lawyer should be able to advice you on how to handle all of your concerns about the job, the media, etc. They would also be able to tell you if you can get any money out of the friend.

Nothing to add to this; it is excellent advice. You got stuck between a rock and a hard place in this situation and a lawyer will help you get out of that spot with the fewest bruises.

[Sapphire Silk]

You can't sue friend's parents unless he is under 18. Under 18, and they are responsible for him. Over 18, he's an adult and they're off the hook.

I'd tell friend he's not welcome back at all; come get your stuff with a sheriff's deputy to supervise.

But odds are he won't even come back, since he'll just be arrested. Now they have the evidence, I'm sure the cops have a warrant out for him.

[wolfie]

I don't know if I should tell my job in case they find out some other way.
Also, the tearing apart of the computers destroyed several hard drives belonging to Roommate 2, containing files essential for his business.
You can't sue the police for damage done during the execution of a warrant, so we're considering suing friend; only he doesn't have any money, although his parents are well off.

Definitely tell your job, in the form "You might hear in the news about an incident at my home. It seems a friend of one of my roommates, who was staying over for a couple weeks, downloaded some kiddie porn". If you don't disclose, and they find out through some other means, you'd have a harder time explaining yourself.

Hope Roommate 2 learned his lesson - back up, back up, back up, and keep a copy off-site.

The police in this case were clearly incompetent in handling the computers. If they had destroyed several hard drives belonging to friend, they could have rendered inaccessible the files they needed as evidence to prosecute friend. You might want to give the police a bit of feedback along these lines - after all, if they accidentally destroy evidence, it could result in a "bad guy" walking away a free man.

[LillFilly]

Update: Work said I had nothing to worry about as I was not involved; boss seemed concerned about my well-being.

'Friend' contacted Roommate 1 and said he's not coming back until he's talked with a lawyer; he still claims to have no clue about this. Roommate 1 said his week to get out still starts today.

I wish friend was innocent, but seeing as how the files were downloaded from a particular site to his computer via our network during the time he has stayed with us, and police found the files still on is computer, I really doubt it it could be a 'mistake.' So far I've not seen mention of my home in the news.

[ADeMartino]

I'm sorry to hear about this. It's a bad situation, to be sure. I'm glad your job is secure, though the damage to the computer hard drives is regrettable. I have a feeling 'friend' isn't coming back EVER. He's little to look forward to if he does, because lawyer or not, he WILL be arrested if they spot him, and unless I'm mistaken, in a lot of states, kiddie porn is a mandatory jail sentence AND he'll have to register as a sex offender once convicted. If he can wait out the statute of limitations without getting arrested or extradited, odds are good he'll get away with it.

[Deserted]

You can't sue friend's parents unless he is under 18. Under 18, and they are responsible for him. Over 18, he's an adult and they're off the hook.

Minor detail: that should be "under the age of majority". While that is 18 in the US (and indeed a significant number of other nations), it can be as low as 16 or as high as 21, depending on where you are.

[hinakiba777]

As well, in some areas there is an age of consent and an age of exploit. The age of consent is the age at which one can legally consent to sexual activity, but the age of exploit is the age you have to be to legally appear in pornographic materials. (Even person photos.) So while the age of consent in a region might be 16 or 17, age of exploit might be 18 or 21.

[LillFilly]

For further information, our 'friend' is in his late 20's. The videos apparently featured an 8 YO.

[Tama]

Yeahhh, I can't see him getting out of jail for a long, LONG time...provided they put him in and Bubba doesn't get wind of the charges.

[hinakiba777]

The videos apparently featured an 8 YO.

Um..well, yup. No moral grey area there. That is... wow. Just wow.

[Deserted]

Yeah, ignore my little detail. This bastard should burn.

No, wait, he's just looking at it. The bastard that should burn is whatever sick fuck made the videos in the first place.

[ADeMartino]

For further information, our 'friend' is in his late 20's. The videos apparently featured an 8 YO.

He's definitely waded into something deep, brown, and smelly. Late twenties is plenty old enough to know what sort of material is off-limits. Furthermore, he's an IDIOT, because he should know what happens to people who engage in this sort of thing.

[Sapphire Silk]

The police in this case were clearly incompetent in handling the computers. If they had destroyed several hard drives belonging to friend, they could have rendered inaccessible the files they needed as evidence to prosecute friend. You might want to give the police a bit of feedback along these lines - after all, if they accidentally destroy evidence, it could result in a "bad guy" walking away a free man.

Oh, I agree. That kind of work should be done by an expert in order to preserve evidence. However, it worked out in a left handed way for Roomie A and B: they got their computers back.

It used to be when the government wanted electronic evidence they took the whole computer, and you might not ever get it back. If you're running a business, this is bad news: see the case of Steve Jackson (GURPS) vs the US Secret Service.


Some agencies are just taking the hard drives now.

I'm sorry to hear about this. It's a bad situation, to be sure. I'm glad your job is secure, though the damage to the computer hard drives is regrettable. I have a feeling 'friend' isn't coming back EVER. He's little to look forward to if he does, because lawyer or not, he WILL be arrested if they spot him, and unless I'm mistaken, in a lot of states, kiddie porn is a mandatory jail sentence AND he'll have to register as a sex offender once convicted. If he can wait out the statute of limitations without getting arrested or extradited, odds are good he'll get away with it.

I'm sure the local jurisdiction has a felony warrant out for him. So if he gets pulled over for traffic in another state, he could still get busted and extradicted to the original state where the charge was filed.

As well, in some areas there is an age of consent and an age of exploit. The age of consent is the age at which one can legally consent to sexual activity, but the age of exploit is the age you have to be to legally appear in pornographic materials. (Even person photos.) So while the age of consent in a region might be 16 or 17, age of exploit might be 18 or 21.

Well, we're not quite talking about the same thing. I'm talking about the parents liability for civil actions. All parents are responsible for their kids actions on a civil level until the kid turns 18, or unless the kid becomes an emancipated minor (age for that varies by state).

For further information, our 'friend' is in his late 20's. The videos apparently featured an 8 YO.

How disgusting. I'm really hoping this guy gets caught soon.

Yeah, ignore my little detail. This bastard should burn.

No, wait, he's just looking at it. The bastard that should burn is whatever sick fuck made the videos in the first place.

No, this guy should burn, too. He's the reason the video was shared in the first place, so as far as I'm concerned he's just as responsible for the abuse as the actual abuser. These videos wouldn't get shared if there weren't a market for them.