Gizmodo Cleared as Charges Finally Brought in Lost Prototype iPhone 4 Case

[MacRumors]

Gizmodo notes that the San Mateo County District Attorney has released an official statement announcing that misdemeanor charges have been brought against two individuals involved in the sale of an iPhone 4 prototype found in a bar back in March 2010 and subsequently sold to Gizmodo.

Gizmodo, parent company Gawker Media, and Gizmodo editor Jason Chen have been officially cleared and will not be charged in connection with the case. From the district attorney's press release:

The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office has filed misdemeanor charges against two individuals for the misappropriation of an iPhone 4 prototype that was lost by an Apple employee and subsequently recovered in a Redwood City establishment by the defendants on March 25, 2010. Brian Hogan, 22, of Redwood City was charged with one count of misappropriation of lost property, and Sage Wallower, 28, of Emeryville, was charged with misappropriation of lost property, and possession of stolen property. Their arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 9:00 in Redwood City. After a consideration of all of the evidence, it was determined that no charges would be filed against employees of Gizmodo.

Hogan was the person who came into possession of the prototype iPhone in a Redwood City bar, with Hogan claiming that he had been handed the phone by another patron after Apple engineer Gray Powell left the phone on a bar stool as he left the establishment. Wallower has been said to have served as an intermediary who worked to shop the device to various tech sites before ultimately selling the iPhone to Gizmodo.

Last April, police officers entered Chen's apartment and seized a number of computers and other property thought to potentially be involved in the case. Controversy surrounded the seizure as Gizmodo and others claimed that the website and its employees should be protected under California laws shielding journalists from such actions as connected to their work. The search warrant was later withdrawn as Gizmodo agreed to cooperate with authorities and provide all relevant information pertaining to the investigation.

Article Link: Gizmodo Cleared as Charges Finally Brought in Lost Prototype iPhone 4 Case

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

They are very lucky!!! I'm shocked.

 

[DerfBWH]

Good. This was a stupid case anyways.

 

[KnightWRX]

Will all the people who said that Jason Chen and Gizmodo were "clearly guilty of theft under California law" please come forward and apologize for name calling and insulting the few of us who said "innocent until proven guilty" now ?

I can dream can I ?

 

[imahawki]

Cynical translation: Gizmodo lawyered up enough to protect themselves and their staff, everyone else gets charged.

 

[9822737]

So it's now OK to buy a stolen Phone? So if I hop on eBay, and buy one of many listed iPhones recently stolen down the road in the London riots thats now OK?

Giz have got away with this big time. It's never OK to buy stolen property.

 

[Minhthien]

Hey Jason can you show us the new iphone 5 pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[KnightWRX]

So it's now OK to buy a stolen Phone? So if I hop on eBay, and buy one of many listed iPhones recently stolen down the road in the London riots thats now OK?

Giz have got away with this big time. It's never OK to buy stolen property.

"Lost in a bar" does not equate "Stolen" it seems.

 

[Bigdaddyguido]

Wirelessly posted (Iphone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Another sad day for justice, and for journalistic integrity.

 

[justinfreid]

My apologies, but...

Please allow me to post a link to a tweet I made on the subject a couple months ago:
http://twitter.com/#!/JustinFreid/status/78269879458865152

 

[Wickedgardengtp]

Good. This was a stupid case anyways.

A stupid case because they leaked trade secrets before its release date?

 

[Anician]

Haha he looks so ****in stupid holding up that iPhone. At least smile or something.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Will all the people who said that Jason Chen and Gizmodo were "clearly guilty of theft under California law" please come forward and apologize for name calling and insulting the few of us who said "innocent until proven guilty" now ?

I can dream can I ?

You sure do know how to brag.

 

[840quadra]

Good. This was a stupid case anyways.

Since when is being proved innocent a stupid case to have?

 

[gnasher729]

Will all the people who said that Jason Chen and Gizmodo were "clearly guilty of theft under California law" please come forward and apologize for name calling and insulting the few of us who said "innocent until proven guilty" now ?

Who said they were guilty of theft? Guilty of handling stolen goods. And lucky that they don't get prosecuted.

Just looked at the Gizmodo site to check for "journalistic integrity". The prosecutor said "After a consideration of all of the evidence, it was determined that no charges would be filed against employees of Gizmodo". Gizmodo changed this to "no crime was committed by Gizmodo employees", which is of course absolutely not the same.

"Lost in a bar" does not equate "Stolen" it seems.

Absolutely correct. "Lost in a bar" does not equate "stolen". We always knew that. "Found in a bar" doesn't equate "stolen" either. "Found in a bar, taken away, and not returned to the owner" equates stolen. Which is why Brian Hogan and Sage Wallower are being charged.

 

[iOrlando]

Will all the people who said that Jason Chen and Gizmodo were "clearly guilty of theft under California law" please come forward and apologize for name calling and insulting the few of us who said "innocent until proven guilty" now ?

I can dream can I ?

Not sure if this is meant as a joke or not. You do realize not every person who commits a crime is actually convicted of that crime right?

Where do people get this idea of "Oh it must mean its legal". No, it means after looking at the situation and circumstances, the DA did not want to proceed because it probably felt it might lose in court. Maybe because of character witnesses, etc.

 

[grs]

"Lost in a bar" does not equate "Stolen" it seems.

Did you read the article? "Brian Hogan, 22, of Redwood City was charged with one count of misappropriation of lost property, and Sage Wallower, 28, of Emeryville, was charged with misappropriation of lost property, and possession of stolen property."

 

[crisss1205]

Will all the people who said that Jason Chen and Gizmodo were "clearly guilty of theft under California law" please come forward and apologize for name calling and insulting the few of us who said "innocent until proven guilty" now ?

I can dream can I ?

Just because no charges were files doesn't mean that what they did was legal. If the court wants to they can charge them tomorrow, but they are not.

 

[gwangung]

"Lost in a bar" does not equate "Stolen" it seems.

Read more carefully. Note what one individual was charged with.

 

[Krizoitz]

Complete BS. Those criminals should be facing jail time. Instead they get to continue to pretend to be journalists instead of the felons they are. I hope Apple "accidentally" bricks their iPhones or something. Scumbags.

Also, I'd love to see Apple I after them in civil court and nail them for damages.

 

[BornAgainMac]

The story would make a great movie.

 

[KnightWRX]

You sure do know how to brag.

I wouldn't have half so many opportunities to do so if the Macrumors crowd kept a cool head and learned a thing or two about objectivity instead of constantly picking sides and going all emotional before the facts are decided in these legal stories.

 

[wovel]

"Lost in a bar" does not equate "Stolen" it seems.

Are you sure? Selling it was a crime... charge of a crime anyway. I am sure they will plea out.

"Emeryville, was charged with misappropriation of lost property, and possession of stolen property"

 

[andrewlgm]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I can't even believe there was a case to begin with...

 

[Consultant]

It'll still serve as a deterrent against future thefts.