I’ll spin out an in-depth report on it later; consider this a condensed edition.
I met with VSP Special Agent Jason Trent at my attorney’s office in Charlottesville. Because, apparently, if Mr. Trent has contact with me, it’s A-OK, but if I have contact with him, it’s criminal. The statuesque officer had no problem being antagonistic about that, and by the end of our interaction I was highly exasperated with him. In addition to his cocky -- and might I say unwise? -- gloating, I had to endure his scoffs and denials about missing items, one of which was a memory card conspicuously absent from my camera. The object was eventually recovered after Mr. Trent got in touch with a mysterious Mike Monroe and conversed with another person or two besides.
I assume Mr. Monroe’s name and number aren’t a secret, and that he doesn’t care if they’re given out, since Agent Trent rattled both off aloud right in front of me, a person who’s known to often procure and sometimes divulge such information.
Anyhoo, I’m pleased that my home computer has been returned, albeit covered in weird, red “evidence” tape and white labels.
It seems every time anyone in law enforcement did anything with it, they slapped on a new icky sticky strip and initialed it. With a dang Sharpie!
My laptop was not spared the wrath of the everlasting black marker either.
Fortunately, the fact that the tags on the tower contain interesting pieces of information make up for the permanent scribbles.
Why, yes, that M P Monroe signature did catch my eye. But only because SA Trent drew my attention to it.
It so happens that Michael P. Monroe has received computer forensic training from the FBI, the NW3C, and numerous others, and has been involved for years in computer evidence recovery.
Very cool.
