REDWOOD CITY — The Gizmodo editor whose house was raided by police as part of an investigation into a missing iPhone prototype has agreed to turn over e-mails and online chats about the device, attorneys said.
Jason Chen’s agreement to cooperate with investigators heads off a potential First Amendment battle over the warrant used to search the gadget website writer’s Fremont home and seize several computers, said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Media advocates have argued the search violated California laws that protect journalists from some kinds of search warrants.
“That is an issue that won’t be decided” in San Mateo County Superior Court,” Wagstaffe said, adding that police will return the seized items.
Chen caused a furor in mid-April when he published details about the iPhone 4, which had yet to be released. Gizmodo purchased the phone for $5,000 from a Redwood City man who claimed to have found it after an Apple employee left it in a bar.
After Chen’s story appeared, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote an e-mail to Gizmodo asking for the phone’s return. His company later brought the matter to San Mateo County authorities and asked them to launch a criminal probe, which resulted in the April 23 raid of Chen’s home.
Tom Nolan, Chen’s attorney, said his client didn’t do anything illegal and the information he turned over to investigators will show that. Earlier concerns over the search warrant could have been avoided if police just asked for the information.
“They jumped the gun a little,” Nolan said. “Now we don’t have to make the challenge.”
The deal was made final Friday when San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan granted an application from investigators to withdraw the warrant. Wagstaffe said his office agreed to file the application as part of the agreement with Chen to voluntarily turn over the information.
But not everyone is happy with the deal. Matt Zimmerman, head attorney at digital watchdog group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the search was illegal and should have been scrutinized in court.
“They screwed up,” Zimmerman said of investigators. “They didn’t properly evaluate the legal protections (for journalists).”
But with the withdrawal of the search warrant, the issue won’t be headed to court, Nolan said.
However, this could be one of the final steps toward closing the affair. Wagstaffe said the agreement will speed up the process of determining whether charges will be filed in the case. A decision is not likely to come this week.
“I wouldn’t say days, but hopefully not months,” he said.
