A judge has ruled that a lawyer’s computer can be searched after his client uses it to get on Instagram.
Attorney Eric Johnson was selecting jurors for the YSL trial involving superstar Young Thug in May when then-defendant Christian Eppinger got on the computer and illegally accessed Instagram. Courtroom deputies took pictures of him violating court rules.
It was later found that Eppinger was on Instagram talking to a Fulton County Sheriff’s deputy. She was later fired and arrested over the couple’s relationship.
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In May, a judge signed an order to seize Johnson’s computer, but Johnson and other attorneys fought back.
Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes was at a hearing on Friday where the judge decided to uphold the injunction.
Johnson allowed attorney Denorris Heard to argue his case.
“The reason for the search warrant is that they want to check the browser history, they want to check the aspects of Mr. Johnson’s computer, which in itself would be against attorney-client privilege,” Heard said.
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All the lawyers in the courtroom agreed, but the judge ruled against it.
“The laptop will go from where it is safely stored to the forensic expert and then the expert will take an image of it so that the work can be done to search the privileged material to get to the items that are in the warrant,” special master Allegra Lawrence Hardy said.
Hardy is given a week to sort out all the information on the computer.
Eppinger’s case is separate from the other defendants in the YSL indictment. He is now being tried alone.
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