Illegal Phone Search Exposed Woman’s Nudes, Officers Face No Consequences

In 2019, Haley Olson’s private nude photos, stored on her phone, began circulating in Grant County, Oregon, allegedly shared among local sheriff’s deputies.

The situation stemmed from an illegal search of her phone data, but despite a court ruling in her favor, no penalties were issued against the officials involved, as first reported by ArsTechnica.

Olson, who ran a legal marijuana dispensary in Oregon, was arrested in Idaho for marijuana possession. During her arrest, she signed a voluntary consent form allowing Idaho police to search her phone.

They created a full image of her device before later dropping the charges, as reported by ArsTechnica.

Back in Oregon, Olson discovered that people in town, including sheriff’s office staff, had seen her photos. One deputy even approached her, saying, “I heard there’s some pretty smokin’ pictures of you going around the sheriff’s office.”

Another witness saw a married couple—both sheriff’s office employees—viewing the images together, reported ArsTechnica.

Suspecting her data had been shared with Grant County authorities, Olson filed a public records request. The county attorney at the time, Jim Carpenter, admitted that Sheriff Glenn Palmer had requested the phone data from Idaho officials.

According to ArsTechnica, Palmer was reportedly concerned that Olson’s deputy boyfriend might be implicated in criminal activity.

After failing to obtain the phone data directly, Palmer enlisted Carpenter, who requested it from Idaho prosecutors. Despite promising the data would be used only for internal purposes, Carpenter analyzed the phone’s contents himself using digital forensic tools from Cellebrite.

He later claimed to have deleted the data after finding it contained only personal material, but by then, the damage had been done—Olson’s private images had already spread, reported ArsTechnica.

Palmer claimed Carpenter had twice offered to show him the phone data, allegedly saying, “There were things on the cell phone that once you see them, you can’t unsee them.”

Carpenter denied giving the sheriff access, maintaining he only took a “quick look” before erasing the flash drive, as noted by ArsTechnica.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the phone search was a clear Fourth Amendment violation. The court stated, “Olson’s consent in Idaho did not extend to a search by a different law enforcement agency, in another state.”

ArsTechnica reports that judges criticized the sheriff’s office for accessing personal data without a warrant or legal justification.

Despite this ruling, Sheriff Palmer faced no penalties, as he was never proven to have viewed the images. Meanwhile, Carpenter was granted “qualified immunity,” as the legal boundaries of such data-sharing were unclear in 2019, as noted by ArsTechnica.

Olson’s lawsuit failed to uncover exactly how her photos were disseminated, leaving her without justice. Meanwhile, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office has faced multiple misconduct allegations, including a whistleblower case that resulted in a $1.3 million payout to a former deputy.