The dispute stems from a 2019 armed robbery at a federal credit union in Midlothian, Virginia, where the perpetrator stole $195,000 and appeared to be speaking on a cellphone. In response, law enforcement served a geofence warrant on Google, directing the company to identify cellphone users located within a 150-meter radius of the bank for 30 minutes before and after the crime.
The investigation proceeded in three stages. First, Google provided an initial list of accounts linked to devices in the area without revealing user names. Second, law enforcement requested additional information about several accounts active during a two-hour window. Third, a detective obtained the names and details for three specific accounts, including that of Okello Chatrie. The source packet notes that law enforcement did not seek a warrant for these latter two steps.
Chatrie was charged with bank robbery and moved to suppress the evidence, arguing the geofence warrant violated the Fourth Amendment. The federal district court agreed that the initial warrant lacked probable cause but allowed the evidence to stand based on a good-faith exception. Chatrie subsequently pleaded guilty to bank robbery and gun charges while reserving his right to appeal the suppression ruling, and he was sentenced to 141 months in prison.
A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the denial of Chatrie’s motion to suppress, holding that the government did not conduct a search because Chatrie could not reasonably expect his location data to be kept private. The source packet notes the case went to the full court of appeals, which issued a deeply splintered decision regarding the panel’s ruling, but does not specify the final disposition of that en banc review.