R. v. Fox; Court File 244069-8-B; Status of disclosure material [Patrick Fox; Chris Johnson (BCPS)]

Dear Mr. Johnson:

I finally received a working laptop today and am now able to access the disclosure hard drive.

1. I was incorrect about the audio/video files. It turns out they are actually present on the drive. You can ignore my previous request regarding them.

2. Every single file – all of the PDFs and every audio/video file – on the drive is encrypted!!! And, obviously, I don't have the software or the key to decrypt them. And to be clear, I am not talking about the hardware encryption provided by the hard drive – I am saying that each individual file was individually encrypted. I am able to access the partitions and the filesystems and each of the files on the drive – but the contents of each of those files is encrypted.

   I would like to point out you guys have already used this tactic (of providing me encrypted files) on me in 244069-5-BC (Bernie Wolfe prosecuting) and in 27178 (Mark Myhre prosecuting). If you guys are going to play these pathetic games you can at least try not to be so repetitive. Making the exact same idiotic mistake multiple times makes the BCPS look grossly incompetent (and you as well since you're representing them) … or it establishes a patter (both of which word to my benefit). Also, it seems extremely unlikely the files could have been encrypted inadvertently since the act of encrypting them requires additional, explicit steps.

Anyway, may you please:

1. Schedule an in-person pretrial conference ASAP so I can show you and the court, firsthand, in person, that all of the files on the hard drive are encrypted and, therefore, their contents are inaccessible to me; and I can point out to the court that this exact thing has happened multiple times before (and I made sure to get it on the record those times as well – you know, in order to establish a pattern).

   Obviously I request you not take the current hard drive back until I've had the opportunity to prove, in court, that the files are encrypted and, therefore, useless to me.

   Also, please be sure to bring a laptop to the pretrial conference so that I can access the drive in the presence of you and the court.

   And, please bring the person who actually copied the files onto the hard drive so he can testify about whether he provided encrypted files on purpose or he's just overwhelmingly incompetent.

2. Provide me a copy of all of the disclosure material, unencrypted, so I can actually access it an actually use it to prepare a defense. Please provide this on another hard drive so we can keep the contents of the current drive intact for me to present in court. And, may you please do this timely so I can actually be prepared for the 2021-10-14 trial date?

In closing, allow me to say, I believe this was a deliberate delay tactic on your part because you're hoping I will request an adjournment due to not being ready due to delays in receiving disclosure. Delays which you will try to claim were an honest mistake and nobody's fault – but as I've said, the BCPS has already used this exact tactic exhaustively. The first time, you can say it's an honest mistake; each time after that it becomes more and more obvious it's being done on purpose.