On March 30, Boston College police searched the dorm of Riccardo Calixte, A&S '09, and seized, among other computer-related devices, an iPod Touch, a disassembled Blackberry cell phone, a Dell Inspiron, and a MacBook laptop. The warrant for this search and seizure cited "obtaining computer services by fraud or misrepresentation" and "unauthorized access to a computer system" as the offenses that Detective Kevin Christopher of the BC Police Department had probable cause to believe Calixte had committed.
Since then, Calixte has sought legal aid from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an Internet civil liberties advocacy group based in San Francisco, and Fish & Richardson, a Boston legal firm that has taken the case on pro bono.
In an application for a search warrant dated March 30, Christopher sought permission to search Calixte's dorm room for a personal computer, and "all objects capable of storing digital data in any form," as well as computer access codes and passwords. The warrant was granted.
Christopher outlined the basis of probable cause in documents supporting the warrant. He cited a report filed on Jan. 27 by BCPD Officer Brian Eng regarding "domestic issues" between Calixte and a roommate. Christopher reported that at the time this roommate "also advised Officer Eng that Mr. Calixte is involved in some computer hacking incidents," and that he, "has changed grades for other students by accessing the Boston College computer systems."
Christopher wrote that he met with the informant the following day, Jan. 28. "Mr. Calixte was also a suspect in a stolen Boston College laptop computer report I investigated previously." The roommate also suspected Calixte of illegal downloads and Internet use. He also said that he suspects Calixte has tampered with his computer and caused it to crash. "The computer has been looked at by several experts, and none of them can resolve the problem," Christopher said.
The student who brought Calixte to police attention was also recently the victim of an e-mail to several University listservs that said the student was gay and coming out of the closet. Andrew Kessel, attorney for Fish & Richardson, said that there is no reason to believe that the person who did send the e-mail broke either of the laws cited in the search warrant. "We can't see any way that whoever sent those e-mails would have violated either of those statutes," he said.
Matthew Zimmerman of the EFF said that the warrant granted for the search was baseless. "Police are required to establish probable cause before they obtain a warrant to exercise their police powers, and they just simply haven't done that here," he said. "They have made a number of vague allegations that even if you take them as true, they do not constitute the crimes they have indicated."
There is nothing indicated in the search warrant to indicate that Calixte obtained computer services by fraud, nor did he use a computer system without authorization, Zimmerman said. "There is no allegation here that anyone exceeded their access to any computer service, there is no allegation that a password was circumvented," he said. "There is no allegation that he was not an authorized user of the listserv."
"The BC listserv is not a commercial computer service by any definition," Kessel said. "There needs to be some sort of computer service that was accessed without permission."
Zimmerman said that the EFF is now working with Fish & Richardson and Calixte to return his property to him and stop the investigation. "We have filed an emergency motion to quash the warrant and return his property, and we are trying to schedule that on an emergency basis. We are trying to schedule that this week or early next week," Zimmerman said.
Kessel said that Calixte is impeded from his daily activities by the seizure of his belongings, and that he has filed a motion to quash the warrant, have the property returned immediately, and have all data copied in the course of the investigation erased.
Paul Chebator, dean of the Office for Student Development, said, "The only thing I would say is that this is an ongoing police investigation, and under federal rules, I cannot really speak about another student's disciplinary situation."
University Spokesman Jack Dunn said, "Given that this is an ongoing criminal investigation involving BC Police, the Mass State Police, and the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, no one from IT, BCPD, or any other administrative office is at liberty to comment on the matter."
BCPD Chief Robert Morse declined to comment, as did Marian Moore, vice president of information technology services; and Detective Christopher. David Escalante, director of security for information technology services, who was cited in the warrant affidavit as having traced the scam e-mail back to Calixte, did not respond to requests for comment.
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