Alexandria, VA criminal defense attorney Chris Leibig talks about a memorable sex crime case he handled. He reflects on his experience handling numerous sex offense cases, noting that in roughly half of them, the matters never proceeded to court. In many instances, this outcome is driven not by the attorney’s efforts but by the facts and evidence of the case itself.

He recounts one particularly notable case involving a client accused of multiple sex offenses. At the time, Virginia law had not yet addressed GPS tracking without a warrant. His client had been monitored via GPS, and he challenged this in circuit court and eventually through the Virginia Supreme Court. This was among the first cases in the state to confront the issue of warrantless GPS tracking at such a scale.

While the evidence in the case strongly indicated guilt, the central legal question involved Fourth Amendment protections and whether the government could conduct such intrusive surveillance without judicial authorization. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Jones v. United States, confirming that attaching a GPS device constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment and requires a warrant. This ruling, along with subsequent decisions, now extends to modern methods of tracking, including cell phones and other digital devices.