(This is the case in Colorado, not the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals case which 
has been
much discussed of late.)

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/decryption-flap-mooted

Constitutional Showdown Voided as Feds Decrypt Laptop

    By David Kravets
    Email Author
    February 29, 2012 | 
    5:17 pm

Colorado federal authorities have decrypted a laptop seized from a bank-fraud 
defendant,
mooting a judge's order that the defendant unlock the hard drive so the 
government could
use its contents as evidence against her.

The development ends a contentious legal showdown over whether forcing a 
defendant to
decrypt a laptop is a breach of the 5th Amendment right against compelled self
incrimination.

The authorities seized the encrypted Toshiba laptop from defendant Ramona 
Fricosu in 2010
with valid court warrants while investigating alleged mortgage fraud, and 
demanded she
decrypt it. Colorado U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ordered the woman in 
January to
decrypt the laptop by the end of February. The judge refused to stay his 
decision to allow
Fricosu time to appeal.

"They must have used or found successful one of the passwords the co-defendant 
provided
them," Fricosu's attorney, Philip Dubois, said in a telephone interview 
Wednesday.

[....]

--
James S. Tyre
Law Offices of James S. Tyre
10736 Jefferson Blvd., #512
Culver City, CA 90230-4969
310-839-4114/310-839-4602(fax)
[email protected]
Policy Fellow, Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org



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