Let’s say a local attention whore posts a bunch of pics of a real basement pot grow operation which re represents as his efforts. Post gets to local police who track him down and raid his house at considerable expense and trouble. They find nothing but a failure to launch 20 something living his mother’s basement.
Is he in trouble? Can they come after him for anything?
Would that be enough information to get a search warrant? I suspect not.
Depends on the judge. If he’s clueless he might sign it. He also might be really pissed at the DA when his grandkids educate him.
My first thought was that of course he’d done nothing wrong. But what if he covered someone in fake blood and posted pictures and pretended to be a murderer, or kidnapper or something? It seems like you’d get in trouble for that.
I’m really curious what the people who actually know legal stuff (paging Bricker!) will say about this.
I’m thinking, you really better hope nobody ever HAD a grow op in your basement, because if there was, the cops may find evidence of it, and then you’re probably in a bit of trouble.
Why would the cops not assume that the operation in the photos isn’t in some other hidden location, and simply not stop until they find it?
Because the evidence they have (photos posted on Facebook) isn’t enough to support that type of investigation. Anyone can post pictures of anything on Facebook, without some additional evidence you really can’t do much. Again, not a lawyer or LEO.
The facts supporting a warrant must bear “reasonable indicia of reliability.” So, if a cop files a warrant application and puts, “this dude told me so,” the warrant is unlikely to be granted.
Generally, before obtaining a warrant for a grow house, police would check to see if there is any other reason to believe the purported location is full of reefer. High electricity usage is a good one; all that lighting will require a noticeably greater amount of juice. For the same reason, they can also use infra-red imaging.
I’m surprised that someone claiming they are growing pot in their basement, and providing pictures to that effect, wouldn’t be sufficient for a search warrant on its own. That’s not just “this dude told me so” hearsay.
We’re talking about pictures off the internet.
True, but it is also first hand information. Look, if he said his neighbor had a Grow Op in his basement, I’d be pretty leery of breaking down that door without corroborating evidence.
A guy says it’s his OWN operation, in his OWN basement? How much additional investigation do you need to do before knocking on the door? Maybe they should just mail him some cuffs and directions to the local jail. Wouldn’t want to trouble ourselves by executing a warrant.
I would hope the cops would check the IP address to make sure the account wasn’t hacked.
In cannabis forums it is very common for people to post photos of their grows. The poster attempts to be anonymous, stripping the EXIF data from the pictures, etc.
I don’t think lying on Facebook is tantamount to perjury 
IANAL but in theory, I suppose you could be charged with interfering with police duties. The basic idea would be that by faking evidence of a non-existent crime, you caused the police to waste resources they could have used against real crimes. But I believe in most cases, there has to be intent shown - the prosecution has to show that it was your intention to mislead the police. So if you just sent your fake pot photos to your buddies, you’d be okay but if you forwarded them to the DEA, you’d be in trouble.
It would be along the lines of a couple who’s going through a messy divorce, and the wife calls the police and tells them that her STBX is molesting the kids, even if the kids themselves deny it. You can get in some really big trouble for doing that.
Not really. Without identifying the owner of the account, that the post was from the owner of the account, that the photo wasn’t intended as a joke, and that the post is an accurate depiction of an actual crime you don’t have much to go on.
They would, of course, identify the owner of the account.
It is my understanding (or my misunderstanding) that the facebook photos would be enough for a search warrant. The person is posting about himself, not someone else. It would be similar to a policeman overhearing a conversation where a person admits to having committed a crime. (the person may well be lying, but it would still be probable cause)
So the cops could come with warrant to search, but find nothing. Then there would be no arrest and no charges.
It is more likely, though, that the police would do some investigating before getting the search warrant. Like looking at his power bill.
Possibly, or it could be someone else posting on a fake account. How does a cop determine who is posting this? Facebook can’t determine that.
More like someone giving the police a printout of an email that appears to be from a person but could be typed up by anyone with a keyboard. Again, I’m not an LEO or lawyer but I don’t think that’s enough for a search warrant. They might keep an eye out on the person, or conduct an investigation, but I hope that a facebook posting isn’t enough for a search warrant by itself.
There’s different levels of proof required for an investigation, an arrest, and a conviction. You only have to have reasonable grounds for a search. Seeing a photo that appears to be marijuana and is labeled “Here’s the pot I’m growing in my basement at 211 Pine Street in Mayfield” would qualify as reasonable grounds for thinking there’s marijuana at that location. There are other possible explanations but marijuana being there is certainly a realistic possibility. So you can get a search warrant to go investigate.