ASHLAND, OH – Detective Lieutenant Curt Dorsey of the Ashland Police Department violated a resident’s Fourth Amendment rights by using the Israeli-based forensic tool Cellebrite to bypass an iPhone’s security without a search warrant. Although the phone was originally seized as evidence in a domestic violence case, that case had been dismissed six days before Dorsey accessed the device. Despite the legal conclusion of the three-month court proceeding, Dorsey and the Ashland Courts, specifically: Judge John L. Good, still chose to blatantly ignore constitutional protections, all in an effort to gain unauthorized access to the defendant’s private data.

On April 12, 2024, Officer Dorsey submitted an investigative report supplement in which he admitted to “guessing” the device’s password on March 22, 2024. Again, this despite the case having been dismissed and the defense attorney having already filed a formal demand for the immediate return of the phone.  Ashland Municipal Judge John L. Good issued a search warrant for the device effective on March 26, 2024.

Although Dorsey claimed to have guessed the passcode, forensic evidence confirms he actually utilized Cellebrite Inseyets (formerly known as UFED) to bypass the device’s security.  Despite logs showing zero successful manual entries or even failed attempts, Dorsey’s official report falsely asserted that he guessed the password. The report itself is self-incriminating; which is clearly characterized by shaky, incoherent phrasing and elementary (5th grade) level syntax, it lacked of professional composure consistent with someone documenting a falsehood. Furthermore, Dorsey’s unauthorized search occurred before he ever approached Good to request a warrant and again after the case had already been dismissed.

This conclusion was based on the sole fact that the hacked iPhone belonged to a tech-savvy individual, someone who had previously served over four years in federal prison for operating a large-scale piracy website.  When the device was returned, a real investigation was performed by it’s owner to identify the true date in which the phone had been accessed.  After delving into keychain dump info, timeline data and spiked usage records (not hard to do with a multi-month dormant phone) it was determined that access had occurred before any warrant was issued.  Also, left behind were critical logs on APD’s mainframe via setup.api.dev.log which documented the unlawful activity as well.  These logs clearly show that Cellebrite was used on or about March 22, 2024 – four days before Judge John L. Good issued his warrant.   There were other logs and intrusion timeline detection methods used by the defendant regarding his stolen device…

“I Had never spoken with anyone outside of the justice system about the phone messages.  She somehow knew that I had gotten into the phone and saw the messages that I saw.” – Det. LT. Dorsey

As if this kangaroo court could possibly jump any fucking higher.  Also found in the same report, Dorsey can be seen expressing concern that something else might be unfolding. After documenting significant difficulties syncing the phone with several computers, including the APD mainframe, he was forced to use an external drive. Later in the report, while questioning a subject about specific text threads, Dorsey noted: “I had never spoken with anyone outside of the justice system about the phone messages. She somehow knew that I had gotten into the phone and saw the messages that I saw.”  Yet another indicator of self-incrimination out of pure instinct (or psychic) fear as to perhaps the “guessing” game being fatally exposed…

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

• 1/9/2024 – Charges filed for Domestic Violence M-1
• 3/14/2024 – Case dismissed.
• 3/22/2024 – Detective LT. Dorsey receives phone on a Friday and immediately “guesses” the password due to his psychic ability.
  • Over the course of the weekend Dorsey snoops through his recently cracked phone in violation of multiple civil rights violations, most specifically the 4th Amendment.
• 3/25/2024 – Dorsey reports back to Judge John L. Good of what he feels would be a noteworthy reason to proceed with a search warrant of the phone.
• 3/26/2024 – Judge Good issues a fictitious warrant for the phone attached to the dismissed case.
• April & May of 2024 – Dorsey sets out and begins investigating a dismissed domestic violence case.  The case remained closed after no findings to re-open.
  • The only “evidence” that was attempted to be utilized in the closed case is consistent with a text message thread between the defendant and a friend.  The defendant went on to speak about how his wife had hit him for the 1,000th and final time – referencing prolonged abuse, which was also found within text message threads dating back years.  The husband had attempted to calm the wife down (who was having a bi-polar episode) by giving her a hug in their kitchen, leaving her alone, giving her space and attempting himself to sleep on the couch.  The wife attacked him and punched him in the head numerous times with her wedding ring.  The man would go on to state to his friend that he would break her jaw if she ever touched him again and referenced other physical acts related to the situation, clearly venting.  The woman did lie about the events as they transpired because she clearly failed to mention how she had hit her husband without being provoked, punching him numerous times in the head, even while he was trying to calm her down (she claimed he did give her a hug, but it wasn’t loving and it was a bear hug, then failed to leave out her attack) and then attempting to attack him again.  She was charged and convicted of falsification, sentenced to serve 30 days in jail and received a 1-yr probationary term as a result of her falsifying the events as they transpired.  The domestic violence charge had a true date of 11/6/2023.

FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE DOCTRINE – A legal rule that prevents evidence obtained illegally (the “poisonous tree”) from being used in court, and also bars any further evidence (the “fruit”) discovered as a result of that initial illegal act, like a confession or leads to other evidence. Rooted in the Exclusionary Rule, its purpose is to deter law enforcement from violating constitutional rights, ensuring that evidence gathered through unconstitutional searches, seizures, or interrogations is deemed inadmissible.  It was not needed to be invoked.

THE BOTTOM LINE 

SCUMBAGGED TIP:  Perhaps the next time the Ashland Police Department utilizes nefarious ways to gain access into an individuals phone, it won’t be against someone who surpasses them in all ways in the digital world.  You never know who you’re coming across in this life.  Be lawful, be legal and do the right things.  Stop doubling down and further entrenching yourself if you make mistakes – poor choices, bad police work, targeting, discrimination, blatant law violations, what have you, own up to them, move forward, do and be better – you’re not above the law, you are supposed to be the law, which means to enforce it as well as live by it, so start behaving in such a manner…

Aëtos SAYS:  Law enforcement officials that break and bend the law tend not to be the brightest crayon in the box, this is proven to be a consistent theme throughout the course of history.