{"id":197,"date":"2025-03-25T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/?p=197"},"modified":"2025-02-25T11:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T16:31:11","slug":"spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a criminal investigation, your phone might hold the key to your defense\u2014texts, photos, or call logs that could prove your innocence. But what happens if police destroy it? At Harshman Ponist Smith &amp; Rayl, we\u2019re your &#8220;Trusted Counsel Close to Home,&#8221; fighting for Hoosiers when evidence goes missing\u2014or gets trashed. In Indiana, spoliation of evidence by law enforcement, like smashing a phone, raises serious due process questions under the U.S. and Indiana Constitutions. In 2025, this issue is critical as digital evidence dominates cases. Let\u2019s explore how the Indiana Court of Appeals handles it\u2014and what it means if your phone\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n<h3>\nSpoliation in Criminal Law: The Basics<\/h3>\n<p>Spoliation means the loss, destruction, or alteration of evidence that could affect a case. In criminal matters, it\u2019s governed by constitutional protections, not a specific Indiana statute. The U.S. Supreme Court set the standard in <i>Arizona v. Youngblood<\/i> (488 U.S. 51, 1988): if police destroy \u201cpotentially useful\u201d evidence in bad faith, it violates due process. Indiana follows this, but the bar\u2019s high\u2014negligence isn\u2019t enough; intent matters. Destroying a phone\u2014say, during a search or testing\u2014can trigger this analysis, especially if it held exculpatory data.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a criminal investigation, your phone might hold the key to your defense\u2014texts, photos, or call logs that could prove your innocence. But what happens if police destroy it? At Harshman Ponist Smith &amp; Rayl, we\u2019re your &#8220;Trusted Counsel Close to Home,&#8221; fighting for Hoosiers when evidence goes missing\u2014or gets trashed. In Indiana, spoliation of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[38,58,19,57,56],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal","tag-criminal-law","tag-destroyed-evidence","tag-indianas-criminal-laws","tag-spoliation","tag-spoliation-of-evidence"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone &#8212; Indiana Law Blog &#8212; March 25, 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a criminal investigation, your phone might hold the key to your defense\u2014texts, photos, or call logs that could prove your innocence. But what happens &#8212; March 25, 2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone &#8212; Indiana Law Blog &#8212; March 25, 2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In a criminal investigation, your phone might hold the key to your defense\u2014texts, photos, or call logs that could prove your innocence. But what happens &#8212; March 25, 2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Aaron Harshman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone &#8212; Indiana Law Blog &#8212; March 25, 2025","description":"In a criminal investigation, your phone might hold the key to your defense\u2014texts, photos, or call logs that could prove your innocence. But what happens &#8212; March 25, 2025","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone &#8212; Indiana Law Blog &#8212; March 25, 2025","twitter_description":"In a criminal investigation, your phone might hold the key to your defense\u2014texts, photos, or call logs that could prove your innocence. But what happens &#8212; March 25, 2025","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Aaron Harshman","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/"},"author":{"name":"Aaron Harshman","@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8c8dfa997679493635d5e42ea50de489"},"headline":"Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone","datePublished":"2025-03-25T14:00:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/"},"wordCount":701,"keywords":["Criminal Law","Destroyed Evidence","Indiana's Criminal Laws","Spoliation","Spoliation of Evidence"],"articleSection":["Criminal"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/","url":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/","name":"Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone &#8212; Indiana Law Blog &#8212; March 25, 2025","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-03-25T14:00:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8c8dfa997679493635d5e42ea50de489"},"description":"In a criminal investigation, your phone might hold the key to your defense\u2014texts, photos, or call logs that could prove your innocence. But what happens &#8212; March 25, 2025","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/spoliation-of-evidence-in-indiana-when-police-destroy-your-phone\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Spoliation of Evidence in Indiana: When Police Destroy Your Phone"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/","name":"Indiana Law Blog","description":"Published by Indiana Lawyers \u2014 Harshman Ponist Smith &amp; Rayl","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8c8dfa997679493635d5e42ea50de489","name":"Aaron Harshman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/81e9c1ccbbe56be2968aeabd8122b9e222cf94139ec17ff780f7b49b4689118f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/81e9c1ccbbe56be2968aeabd8122b9e222cf94139ec17ff780f7b49b4689118f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/81e9c1ccbbe56be2968aeabd8122b9e222cf94139ec17ff780f7b49b4689118f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Aaron Harshman"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}