Our deputies caught a guy stealing stuff with a truck and trailer on someone else's property (an old fork lift was what was stolen). They took all the stuff, including the truck and trailer, into custody thinking it was a felony (potential seizure of all items). Turns out it won't be. While inventorying the truck (which was later given back to the guy b/c its only a misdemeanor) they found 2 game cameras. One matched the description of a game camera reported stolen 2 months (no serial number) that Defendant was believed to have stolen (but could never be proved). They took the SD card out of that game camera and looked at the photos and determined it was the game camera reported stolen. They also found another game camera in the truck. They had a hunch that the Def also stole it but no proof. They also took out that SD Card to try to determine who it belonged to. My question is does the Defendant have a valid illegal search and seizure argument to keep the photos out of evidence? Will the camera that matched the description of the camera stolen be treated differently than the one they only "thought" might be stolen? Thanks!

I spent some time researching a similar set of cases for our office, and the answer we arrived at is that you should go back and get a warrant now for the SD card if you want to be extra careful. You can't ever "cure" an illegal search, but you can perform subsequent searches legally and then use the legally obtained evidence.