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Central Point slapped with $2M lawsuit Sgt. Josh Moulin is supervisor of the Southern Oregon High-Tech Crimes Task Force. Recently expanded to cover half the state, the task force will work close to 140 cases of child exploitation, drugs, arson, homicide, identity theft and animal abuse this year. Wednesday Jun 21, 2017 at 8:24 PM Jun 21, 2017 at 8:33 PM Nick Morgan Mail Tribune @mtcrimebeat Five years after he left his post in a cloud of suspicion that proved unfounded, the former head of an innovative tech-focused police task force is seeking millions from his former employer. Joshua Moulin, the former Central Point police lieutenant who founded and led Southern Oregon's High Tech Crimes Task Force until 2012, is seeking $2 million from the city of Central Point for costs and damage to his reputation after years of defending himself in a criminal case his lawyers called "unfounded," "malicious" and "politically motivated." "Motivated by office politics and rivalries, concerned by Moulin's achievements in law enforcement and eager to find a scapegoat for partner agencies' concern over a still-unsolved murder in Ashland, Defendant Kristine Allison — in her first act as the new Chief of the Central Point Police Department — and her associates schemed to oust Moulin from his position as leader of the Southern Oregon High-Tech Crimes Task Force, a groundbreaking forensic unit that Moulin founded, built and guided for years," the lawsuit first filed May 7 in Jackson County Civil Court says. Moulin's lawsuit makes serious allegations against local law enforcement, such as that Central Point's police leadership forged a critical document, violated Moulin's civil rights and mishandled "every piece of digital evidence," according to Kris Winemiller, Moulin's defense lawyer in the criminal case, a prolonged and obfuscated case in which Central Point police tried to pin computer crime and official misconduct charges onto Moulin. Winemiller, who's now working with Moulin's civil lawyers, called the alleged wrongdoing "significant" and "possibly criminal" of Allison, Central Point police Lt. Brian Day and former High Tech Crimes Task Force investigator Michael Anderson. Steve Kraemer — representing Allison, Day, Anderson and Central Point's insurance company — declined to comment, except to say that he intends to formally deny the allegations in U.S. District Court in Medford "within the next month or so." The criminal case against Moulin — dismissed with prejudice in 2015 by Jackson County Circuit Judge Kelly Ravassipour — had alleged that Moulin committed felony computer crime and misdemeanor official misconduct in 2012 because Moulin removed a personal password managing program from a Central Point-owned laptop, shortly after he was placed on paid administrative leave under circumstances that still lack an official explanation. Moulin's criminal case has since been expunged from court records, but archives show Ravassipour issued a scathing ruling that claimed investigators not only mishandled evidence, but that they acted in bad faith. The Apple laptop that Moulin used for presentations was searched in a "forensically unsound manner," according to the lawsuit and previous reports. Moulin sought to prove that no other programs or files were removed before turning in the computer, but Central Point staff — including trained computer forensic investigators — violated established forensic policies and procedures by booting up the laptop and connecting it to the internet, causing a key log file with information about the laptop's hard drive size to be overwritten. "This is not a case where a lay person negligently turned a computer on; this is a case where trained forensics examiners blatantly disregarded all protocols and training and went on a fishing expedition in a forensically unsound manner on the 13-inch MacBook," Ravassipour wrote in her ruling. Winemiller said documents from the criminal case are now evidence for the pending civil suit, and she declined to provide a full copy of Ravassipour's ruling. Winemiller said that when a laptop undergoes a forensically sound investigation, a write-blocking device is used to ensure nothing on the computer changes from when it was bagged as evidence. "Had Central Point police handled the laptop correctly, they would have seen exactly what Josh claimed," Winemiller said. "He only powered on the computer to delete his passwords and then overwrote the free space so the passwords could not be recovered, per published City policy." The only thing Moulin removed from the laptop was a free Mac application called KeePassX, which he used to manage personal passwords for bank accounts, healthcare providers and security codes to enter his home, Winemiller and court documents say. Just before returning the laptop, Moulin performed a "Secure Empty Trash" on the Mac, an extra step which overwrote magnetic data on the hard drive.  On May 16, 2012, Moulin was placed on administrative leave. Moulin claims he was never given a reason aside from a vague "OSP will be in contact with you soon," and the lawsuit says that Moulin was never informed he was under criminal investigation nor was he ever read his Miranda rights. "As it evolved, CPPD's aimless 'investigation' of Moulin also led to the massive spoilation and destruction of evidence as CPPD — including Allison and Anderson, a trained forensic expert — mishandled, inappropriately accessed or altered every digital device that Moulin had returned upon being placed on administrative leave," the lawsuit says. For example, Moulin's lawyers claim the department-owned cellphone Moulin returned to Lt. Day wasn't treated like evidence, but used as equipment. "Incredibly, someone even used that cell phone to place a call (emphasis theirs) on May 22, nearly a week after Moulin had been placed on leave and turned in the phone amidst CPPD's ever-shifting 'investigation.'" "Had they believed Josh was doing something wrong, they should have immediately turned off the phone and placed it into evidence," Winemiller said. Beyond the botched investigation, probable cause exists to prove that Central Point investigators themselves committed similar crimes to the ones with which they charged Moulin, namely computer crime, according to Winemiller, who also alleges identity theft and forgery, among others.  On May 23, 2012, Central Point staff twice accessed Moulin's personal Dropbox account without a search warrant, both times using Central Point computers that had previously been issued to Moulin. "Forensic evidence reveals that these unlawful searches originated from the City of Central Point's Internet Protocol address," the lawsuit states. Further, the lawsuit alleges that Day "attempted to hack into Moulin's personal GoDaddy website account" multiple times. The complaint says Day made so many attempts to access Moulin's personal account by guessing his password that GoDaddy locked the account. "Day even went so far as trying to impersonate Moulin using Moulin's FBI identification credentials to attempt to access the GoDaddy account," the lawsuit alleges. Winemiller said she believes Moulin has a strong case. "The evidence supporting the alleged misconduct is solid, much of it coming from documents, emails and the defendants' own testimony in the criminal case," Winemiller said. Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or by email at [email protected]. Moulin Lawsuit by Mail Tribune on Scribd