Hearing Set On Megahed Computer Search

TAMPA - A judge has scheduled a hearing Thursday to decide whether to punish prosecutors for violating a court order in the case of two former University of South Florida students charged with illegally transporting explosives.

Attorneys for Youssef Megahed filed a motion Monday asking for sanctions based on what they said were the government's violation of a court order detailing when the prosecution was to provide the defense with evidence it plans to use at trial.

U.S. District Judge Steven D.Merryday issued an order this afternoon scheduling a hearing 11 a.m. Thursday where prosecutors must show why they should not be sanctioned. In legal parlance, Merryday issued an order to show cause.

Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed were arrested Aug. 4 in South Carolina after a motor vehicle stop. They have been indicted on federal charges of illegally transporting explosives. Megahed is scheduled to go to trial next week.

Mohamed also faces terrorism-related charges in connection with a video authorities say he made and posted on YouTube that showed how to use a remote-controlled toy to detonate a bomb. He is scheduled to go to trial in July.

Megahed's attorneys say in new court filings that the FBI searched computers seized from the Megahed family home and that prosecutors plan to use videos investigators found of improvised explosive devices being used against military vehicles and military rockets being launched. The audio on the videos is in Arabic, the defense filing states.

Megahed's attorneys argue that the search of the computers was illegal because it was done without a warrant.

The FBI asked Meghed to consent to his family's home being searched, but he refused, the motion states. Then agents contacted Megahed's parents, and they consented to the search, but were told agents were looking for explosive materials, not computers, the motion states.

The Megaheds withdrew their consent the same day the FBI searched the computers, the motion states. The prosecution, which has had the evidence since January, only recently notified the defense, according to a defense filing.

The defense filing says a judge ordered the prosecution to provide the defense with evidence by Jan. 9. After a new indictment was handed up, the prosecution stated in court on April 21 that everything had been provided.

Then, two days later, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer told Adam Allen, a federal public defender, that the government had items found on the Megahed comuters that might be of interest, the defense filing states. On April 24, the prosecution provided 16 CDs with thousands of documents, e-mails, video files and image files retrieved from the computers.

If the judge finds the prosecution violated a court order, he could prevent the prosecution from using the evidence or he could delay the trial. Under the law, he must impose the least severe sanction with the greatest likelihood of compliance with the court's order regarding the exchange of evidence, or discovery.

In the meantime, prosecutors filed a notice with the court of intention to use evidence it maintains shows Megahed's motive or plan. Among that evidence is information showing the home computers had a "large amount of research into weapons, ammunition and armed combat. One of the Megahed residence computers also contained numerous video clips depicting the manufacture and use of improvised explosive devices and a video recording showing the explosion of a bridge by means of such a destructive device."

"Those video recordings all appear to depict the uses of such weapons in the armed struggle in the Middle East against the United States and other forces."

In a footnote in a response pleading, the defense dismisses the government's plan to use the evidence as a desperate move: "It is, although troubling, not surprising that the government would attempt to prove its weak case through the use of this highly prejudicial and irrelevant material that they cannot even establish Mr. Megahed had knowledge of or ever viewed."