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by ranger_danger
135 days ago
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You're also assuming they even think something may have been destroyed in the first place. A wiped/clean device is not necessarily indicative of anything. For a criminal case they still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they believed the device had something they wanted on it (and now it doesn't), with evidence to back that up... not just "well it COULD have had something". That might fly a bit farther in civil cases but not criminal. And remember that without a court case alleging something in the first place, they wouldn't even have access to the device to know 1. it existed and 2. it might have had something useful on it. If I had two devices in my house and they're both clean, you can't just say "oh we think one of them had some evidence that was destroyed"... you need some kind of proof that it at least likely contained something relevant in the past before you can even begin to presume it might have been destroyed. |
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Same for your second paragraph: "oh we think one of them had some evidence..." - that's not how it works! It's your intent to destroy evidence that is the crime, not whether you destroyed evidence. They do not need to prove you destroyed evidence or even likely storage of evidence to get you convicted.
This is the main thing you're saying that is bad legal advice.
For your other point, yes, if they can't tell anything happened, or it seems like an accident, then you're probably going to get away with it. This happens a lot. I think that's a different topic. Original topic was: if you wink at your phone or use a weird finger (or some other visible gesture) and now your phone's wiped, could you get in legal trouble for that sequence of events.