Court won't hear case of man with porn on computer

Mon Jun 8, 2009 10:52 AM EDT

politics, technology, us, supreme-court, computer, porn, court, circuit-city

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court won't stop Pennsylvania officials from prosecuting a man whose computer was found to contain child pornography while it was at Circuit City being upgraded.

Kenneth Sodomsky wants the high court to suppress the videos found on his computer, which he had taken into a Circuit City in Wyomissing, Pa., to get a DVD burner installed into it.

While the computer was in the store, a worker looked through some of the files and found movie files with "questionable" names referring to boys of various ages. The worker then found a video of a hand reaching toward a penis and called the police.

Police seized the computer, obtained a warrant and found child pornography. Sodomsky moved to suppress the discovery, saying the Circuit City employees had no right to search his computer and show any of its contents to police.

A trial judge agreed, but a state appellate court overturned that decision, saying Sodomsky ran the risk of his illegal files being found and viewed by taking the computer out of his house and to the store.

Circuit City Stores Inc. closed the last of its stores in March.

The case is Sodomsky v. Pennsylvania, 08-1274.

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