Category Archives: Digital Investigations

Media Devices, Social Media, and Ethical Lapses [Lecture]

2016-05-27 Mobile Devices, Social Media, and Ethical Lapses from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered jointly with Catherine Slagle at the 2016 Inspiring Public Confidence Conference of the Ontario College of Teachers in Toronto, Canada on 27 May 2016. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this…

PA Teen Pleads Guilty to Collecting and Sharing Nude Photos of Classmates on Dropbox

A teenager at the heart of a significant sexting scandal at North Penn High School in Landsdale, PA, entered a guilty plea on March 22. Brandon Tyler Berlin, 19, pleaded guilty to a single charge of “transmission of sexually explicit images by a minor,” a misdemeanor. Under the terms of his plea deal, he was…

MA Teen Admits Using Snapchat to Record Sexual Assault of Minor

Eighteen months ago, on September 3, 2014, a young woman in Saugus, MA saw four disturbing videos in her Snapchat app. The videos were sent to her by a high school friend, Timothy Cyckowski, and they depicted two people sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in a wooded area. The young woman could hear Cyckowski laughing…

Your Digital Footprint [Lecture]

2016-02-17 Your Digital Footprint from Frederick Lane A 60-minute presentation delivered to grades 5-12 at the Cordova School District, Cordova, AK on February 17, 2016. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information regarding my rates and availability.

OH Substitute Teacher Confesses to Sexting with 14-Year-Old Student

One of the ongoing challenges in investigating cases of educator misconduct is that so many of them involve text messages, which are a particularly ephemeral form digital evidence. Unlike files on a hard drive, which typically linger long after they are “deleted,” or emails, which are routinely archived in multiple locations (just ask Ollie North!),…

10 Years of Detention? TX Middle Schooler Faces Felony Charge for Online Threat

A 13-year-old girl in Dallas, TX is facing a third-degree felony charge for posting a shooting threat on Instagram. Officials at the T.W. Browne School in southwest Dallas were told last Monday night that someone had posted a photo to Instagram of man pointing a gun straight at a camera, with the following grim caption:…

Angry Rant by IL Teacher Leads to Child Pornography Conviction

In May 2014, a substitute teacher at Highland Park High School in Highland Park, IL (a suburb just north of Chicago) raised concerns that two of his students had been cheating. Following an internal investigation, the high school not only sided with the students but told Steven Habay, then 40, that he was being released…

UT Teacher Arrested for Possession of Child Pornography, Reveals Disturbing Fantasies

Over the past six months, the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force conducted an investigation into the online activities of Jeffrey Thomas Patterson, a seventh-grade science teacher at the West Hills Middle School in West Jordan, Utah (a suburb of Salt Lake City). On Wednesday, November 4, law enforcement officials executed a search warrant…

AK Elementary School Teaching Assistant Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Massive Child Porn Collection

In the summer of 2014, an undercover police detective in New Zealand began trading images of child pornography with a man in Anchorage, Alaska. The detective forwarded information about the exchange to Alaska law enforcement officials, who used the data to obtain a search warrant for the home of Daniel Alan Brown, a teaching assistant…

ID Teen Threatens School Shooting When Cheerleaders Refuse to Send Nude Selfies

A confluence of some of the most disturbing trends in American society led to the lockdown Wednesday of Highland High School in Pocatello, Idaho. In the wee hours of the morning on October 7, an unnamed 15-year-old male had a Facebook Messenger exchange with another person, age and gender unknown. A screenshot of a portion…