Evidence Locked Up In Someone's Work Desk

The issue you're wondering about is "chain of custody." Basically the presented of evidence wants to explain everything about it, from the day it was created until it goes into evidence. Rarely is evidence that well documented. For example, the tire print at a murder scene. The police can tell you when they discovered it, who discovered it, who made the casting, where the casting has been, who took the photos, who took care of the photos, but what the police don't know is when the tire print was made.

The tire print could have been made at the time of the murder, it could have been made five minutes before the police arrived and long after the murder, or if it's in California, it could have been sitting there since the last rain, which was how many years ago.

So what a defense attorney does is ask all the questions the police can't answer. Usually this will only go to the weight of the evidence, and not its admissibility. You sound like you already know what the issues are going to be.

Best of luck

Jim Clark-Dawe

Is it chain of evidence you're concerned about or the illegality of breaking into the drawer and taking the disk?

It's the daughter who needs to get the disk? Does she have to say where she got it? Is the editor in a position to complain?

I don't know what procedural legal requirements exist in France similar to the US Constitution that requires a search warrant for a government official to search a private area. If the daughter breaks into the desk, under US law, the evidence would be admissible despite being obtained by a crime. One of the best cases on this subject was a couple of thieves who broke into a house, discovered the homeowner had a crapload of child porn, and sent some of it to the police, with the address where the rest of it was. Police got a search warrant and confirmed the child porn. Homeowner went down for a lot of years.

I don't know of anyone on this forum who's that up on French law. Markesq is doing research on French legal procedure and you might want to send him a PM. He might know the answer.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Aside from the French legal questions, It's pretty much a given that in the course of the murder investigation--even if it's characterized as a mugging gone wrong--the editor, as the victim's work supervisor would be interviewed as a matter of routine. So, the police will be aware of him. His withholding of relevant information/evidence (disc) will be a problem for him upon later discovery, his claim of forgetfulness notwithstanding.