FALLS CITY – Retta Feldkamp was sentenced to probation after a court ruling said Richardson County sheriff’s deputies obtained the passcode to her cell phone in violation of her Miranda rights.

Feldkamp, 59, was originally charged with conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs, but her lawyer filed a motion to suppress evidence against her.

In her ruling, District Judge Julie Smith said officers obtained her passcode improperly and said she would uphold the defense motion, if the passcode was used to later search Feldkamp’s cell phone. Online court records do not indicate the results of that question, as a plea was entered when the charges in one case were reduced to misdemeanor attempted possession.

In the case, sheriff’s deputies searched a Humboldt residence with Feldkamp present.

When she was under arrest, handcuffed and sitting in a patrol car, a deputy told her she would be going to jail and asked if there were any phone numbers she needed from the cell phone.

 

When Feldkamp said yes, the deputy asked for her passcode.

She told the deputy she could use face recognition, but the deputy made repeated requests for the passcode until she gave it.

Judge Smith said the exchange was a police interrogation under felony arrest.

Feldkamp was allowed "unfettered" access to the phone while she roamed around her house for 14 minutes before her arrest, but the deputy would not give her the phone to enter the passcode herself. The judge noted that as soon as Feldkamp gave the passcode, the deputy gave her the phone.

Smith: “There was no reason to require the defendant to give him the passcode other than the usefulness of the passcode in further investigation.”

The judge said the felony interrogation was in violation of Feldkamp’s Miranda rights.

The judge's ruling also said an arrested person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy for a phone that is brought to the jail, but, she said, a warrant was needed when the phone was taken to Lancaster County for examination.