Facebook Posts as Evidence in Criminal Cases

In today’s technologically savvy world, smartphones are as common now as computers were 10 years ago and typewriters were 50 years ago. People use their smartphones for multiple purposes, from accessing their bank accounts to updating their status on Facebook. For centuries, police have counted on criminals bragging to their friends on the street or at the bar about having stolen something or robbing someone or committing a crime, and then that friend turns them in to the police. With Facebook posts, police have an even more useful tool.

Bragging of crimes has gone from a talkative criminal bragging too much at the bar and someone overhearing him and turning him in, to criminals actually writing about their crimes or even posting pictures or videos of themselves actually committing a crime. Police know this and access suspects Facebook posts regularly to build a case against someone. Just because a Facebook profile is private and supposedly accessible to only friends of the poster, means nothing. Police are routinely able to access “non-friend” Facebook user pages, primarily by way of court orders authorizing them to do so. However, most times a court order is not even necessary as the Facebook user doesn’t even bother to restrict access to the page.

A couple of examples of “Facebook posts gone criminal” are in order. First, the case of Christopher Castillo, a Melbourne, Florida man who was recently convicted of making death threats against the President for posting to Facebook in November that he planned to “hunt” Obama down and “kill him and watch the life disappear from his eyes.” Shortly after posting these comments on Facebook, Castillo received a visit from the Secret Service and admitted to making the comments, but insisted he was joking. Now Mr. Castillo is facing up to ten years in prison at his April sentencing.

Christopher Castillo’s Facebook post actually was the crime itself, threatening to kill the President. Obviously the posting was an extremely bad idea. However, other Facebook posts can affect people in a not-so-obvious way. I recently represented someone who nearly did not get released on bond due to Facebook posts of him posing with machine guns and stacks of money. The conduct in the photos was not in anyway illegal, however, a federal judge trying to decide whether to trust the person if released from jail would not appreciate seeing such photos. Thankfully, the Facebook posts did not become an issue, but the point is that they could have very easily affected my client’s situation in a very bad way.

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Criminal defense attorney Tim Bower Rodriguez specialized in federal criminal cases, appeals and post-conviction relief cases. Tim Bower Rodriguez, PA invites your criminal law questions by submitting an online inquiry on their website at www.timbowerrodriguez.com or contacting him at 601 N. Ashley Dr., Suite 310, Tampa, FL 33602 (813-384-7555).