Question

Use the web or other resources to research at least two criminal or civil cases in which  recovered files played a significant role in how the case was resolved.

Need 250 words

Answer 1

Here, I am explaining about the two cases that were resolved using the concept of recovering files.

Case 1: Ross Comptown—2017

Ross Compton from Middletown, Ohio, was convicted on the grounds of aggravated arson and insurance fraud of his Court Donegal house. The incident costed him $4 millions in damage. When Ross submitted fake medical certificates describing his heart illness, the data from his pacemaker served as evidence before the court of law. The data collected from pacemaker included his heart rate, pacer demand, and heart rhythms which helped prove arson and insurance fraud.
As the fire spread through Ross Compton’s $400,000 home, the Middletown, Ohio, man knew he had to get out, but first he had to grab a few things.

He packed some of his clothes and other belongings in a suitcase. He put the stuff that wouldn’t fit in other bags. He grabbed his computer. He made sure to pick up the charger for his medical device. Then, he told dispatchers, he used his cane to break a window and hurl the bags out. After that, he says, he rushed out of the burning house.

Investigators were suspicious early on, said Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Spaulding.

It seemed like a lot of work for someone escaping a burning house — especially a man who needed a pacemaker and an external heart pump to survive.

Weeks later, as investigators mulled how to make an arson charge stick, they realized that they had a way of corroborating just how much scrambling Compton was doing during the fire: His pacemaker was tracking every beat of his heart.

Investigators were able to see did Ross exceed his threshold limit or did his pulse drop below a certain rate. It won’t say what you’re doing, obviously, but it would help corroborate his story. It was much more informative than we thought.

It disproved Compton’s story instead, Spaulding said.

After investigators were granted a search warrant, a technician collected data from Compton’s heart during a noninvasive procedure. “All he had to give us was his time,” Spaulding said.

Now, Compton is charged with aggravated arson and insurance fraud in the Sept. 19 fire. A grand jury indicted him last month after a doctor testified that he couldn’t have done the things he claimed during the fire.

A cardiologist who reviewed the medical data for the investigation concluded that “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,” according to court documents obtained by the Middletown Journal-News.

It was the first time that officers in Middletown, Ohio, had used a pacemaker to corroborate details of a story, Spaulding said.

Case 2: A local murder

Case handled by Kroll Ontrack (Kroll is a corporate investigations and risk consulting firm based in New York City. It was established in 1972) was for a foreign Magistrates Courts involving a hard drive that was used to record CCTV images. The footage captured possibly contained evidence of a murder being committed. Unfortunately for the local investigation team the drive was not operational and they called in our experts to assist.

The damaged drive was flown into London by personal escort and after a cursory examination the media seemed to suffer from electronics failure. Further examination revealed that the drive also suffered from media corruption damage. In these instances the fault lies with the storage device, not a virus or the operating system. In many cases, not only is the data overwritten, but also low-level information that is critical to the basic operation of the hard drive.

Despite this level of corruption, Kroll Ontrack managed to copy 99% of the raw data. Unfortunately the data structures were affected which meant that in order to recover the files, they needed to be repaired. As it is often the case with CCTV systems, the operating system is of a proprietary nature. However, Kroll Ontrack was able to bypass the damaged structures and recover image files that could be used by the court.

In general, you get one shot at recovering data from damaged media so it is paramount that the assistance of experts with the right level of skills, qualifications and experienced are engaged from the very beginning. Sometimes risk just isn’t an option.

If you have any doubt feel free to ask.