Cops use pacemaker data to charge homeowner with arson, insurance fraud

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
Date: Wed, Feb 1, 2017 at 10:32 AM
Subject: Cops use pacemaker data to charge homeowner with arson, insurance
fraud
To: Infowarrior List <infowarrior () attrition org>
Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>


Cops use pacemaker data to charge homeowner with arson, insurance fraud

Police called pacemaker data an 'excellent investigative tool' that
provided 'key pieces of evidence' to charge a man with arson and insurance
fraud

Network World | Jan 30, 2017 7:08 AM PT

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3162740/security/cops-use-pacemaker-data-as-evidence-to-charge-homeowner-with-arson-insurance-fraud.html

If you are dependent upon an embedded medical device, should the device
that helps keep you alive also be allowed to incriminate you in a crime?
After all, the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects a person
from being forced to incriminate themselves.

Nonetheless, that’s what happened after a house fire in Middletown, Ohio.

WCPO Cincinnati caught video of the actual fire, as well delivered news
that the owner’s cat died in the fire. As a pet owner, it would be hard to
believe that a person would set a fire and leave their pet to die in that
fire. The fire in question occurred back in September 2016; the fire
department was just starting an investigation to determine the cause of the
blaze.

A month later, 59-year-old homeowner Ross Compton was arrested and charged
with felony aggravated arson and insurance fraud. The cause of the fire was
still undetermined, but it had resulted $400,000 in damages to the house
and contents of the 2,000-square-foot home.

Fire investigators knew there had been “multiple points of origin of the
fire from the outside of the residence.” At the time, the police cited
inconsistencies in Compton’s statements when compared with the evidence
from the fire.

There were additional “conflicting statements” given to the 911 operator;
Compton had said “everyone” was out of the house, yet the 911 operator also
heard him tell someone to “get out of here now.” In the 911 call published
by WLWT5, an out-of-breath Compton claimed he had “grabbed a bunch of
stuff, threw it out the window.” He claimed to have packed his suitcases,
broken the glass out of bedroom window with his walking stick, and tossed
the suitcases outside.

Compton also told the dispatcher he had “an artificial heart.”

After this, things really get interesting because police investigators used
data from Compton’s electronic heart device against him. Isn’t that
self-incrimination? Can a person “plead the Fifth” when it comes to
self-incriminating data collected from their medical device?

Police set out to disprove Compton’s story about the fire by obtaining a
search warrant to collect data from Compton’s pacemaker. WLWT5 reported
that the cops wanted to know “Compton’s heart rate, pacer demand and
cardiac rhythms before, during and after the fire.”

On Friday, Jan. 27, the Journal-News reported that court documents stated:
“A cardiologist who reviewed that data determined ‘it is highly improbable
Mr. Compton would have been able to collect, pack and remove the number of
items from the house, exit his bedroom window and carry numerous large and
heavy items to the front of his residence during the short period of time
he has indicated due to his medical conditions.'”

Middletown Police said this was the first time it had used data from a
heart device to make an arrest, but the pacemaker data proved to be an
“excellent investigative tool;” the data from the pacemaker didn’t
correspond with Compton’s version of what happened. The retrieved data help
to indict Compton.

Lt. Jimmy Cunningham told WLWT5, “It was one of the key pieces of evidence
that allowed us to charge him.”

It’s worth noting that gasoline was also found on various pieces of
Compton’s clothing. Could police have indicted him without using the data
from his pacemaker against him?



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