Daniel Eran DilgerBrian Hogan, who allegedly discovered the prototype laying on a Redwood City barstool in March of last year, was charged with "misappropriation of lost property," while Sage Wallower was also charged with the same count as well as possession of stolen property.
Gawker Media allegedly paid the duo $5000 to obtain the device for an exclusive story on the new phone for its Gizmodo site just prior to its unveiling by Apple. The company publicly admitted that it had paid to obtain the prototype from a man who claimed to have found it.
In an affidavit related to the investigation, it was revealed that "Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) contacted the editor of Gizmodo.com, Brian Lam," and that "Jobs requested that Lam return the phone to Apple. Lam responded via the e-mail address […] that he would return the iPhone on the condition that Apple provided him with a letter stating the iPhone belonged to Apple."
The document further noted that "upon receiving the stolen property, [Gizmodo editor Jason] Chen disassembled the iPhone, thereby causing it to be damaged. Chen created copies of the iPhone prototype in the form of digital images and video, which were subsequently published on the Internet based magazine Gizmodo.com"
Based on the affidavit, a warrant was issued that resulted in the seizure of four computers, two servers, and iPad, iPhone, Airport Extreme base station, and external hard drives, all under probably cause that Chen's computers had been "used as the means of committing a felony." It has not been reported whether the equipment has been returned or not.
Despite Gizmodo's role in the misappropriation of Apple's lost property and its apparent possession of stolen property, which it used to taunt Apple's legal representatives for what appears to have been a period of weeks after obtaining it, Karen Guidotti, the chief deputy district attorney of San Mateo, issued a press release stating that, "after a consideration of all of the evidence, it was determined that no charges would be filed against employees of Gizmodo."
Gizmodo reported today that the district attorney "has decided, upon review of all of the evidence, that no crime was committed by the Gizmodo team in relation to its reporting on the iPhone 4 prototype last year," but no public statement made by the DA's office indicated that it believed that no crime had been committed; the press release only stated that no charges would be filed.
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56 Comments
...all under probably cause
So if I buy a car from someone that does not belong to them, and I know it is probably not their property when I purchase it, and then later the real owner of the car contacts me asking for it back, which would indicated the car was probably stolen, I am not guilty of possessing stolen property?
Seems like a strange ruling. I can only guess that there were some technical issues related to the evidence or how it was collected that made the DA think it would be hard to convict on the charges.
A very unsatisfying conclusion. Maybe they'll get theirs OJ-style down the road.
Would love to know what changes, if any, Apple made this time around to reduce the possibility of something like this happening to the next new iPhone.
...all under probably cause
That's all you noticed? The article has more typos than that!
Use a proofreader, Dan.
No DA is going to open that can of worms. A smart move I think. Why continue to feed the annoyingly smug would-be maverick journobloggers from an organization with the gutter-level reputation of Gawker Media? It would have been a stage they would have loved to dance on, making techno-fartty noises and giggling incessantly. No, best to have inconvenienced them, and let them go their way.
Their is always a point in being taunted where the tauntee has to decide if responding is worth it, clearly it wasn't in this case. Now Apple could turn around, since the charges are dismissed and file civil suit against them, just to add insult to injury, but I don't think folks in Apple legal want to waste time with it either.
I dropped Gizmodo from my RSS feeds a long time ago, I think after their stupid tricks at one of the tech-cons they endlessly giggled about. Arrested adolescence doesn't build a reputation as a serious journalistic attempt no matter how you spin it. Besides, I have engadget to provide that if I need a dose of general snarkiness.