Sarasota police request to search Christian Ziegler's deleted Instagram messages amid rape investiga

Now tonight to an update in the investigation into embattled GOP chair Christian Ziegler, he is accused of raping a woman and recording it tonight. A newly revealed search warrant reveals investigators want to access his Instagram account. This as detectives believe he recorded the encounter without her consent. Investigators say the two communicated in Instagram messages through what's known as vanishing mode where messages disappear after they are viewed. Now, Sarasota police on access to all of Ziegler's messages including any pictures and videos that may have been sent in vanishing mode right now. He is suspended from his post as the Florida Republican Party chair until the investigation is completed. He has yet to be charged with a crime. We spoke with a bay area attorney who specializes in first amendment and constitutional law. Luke Laro is not involved in the Ziegler case but gave us some insight into Florida's video voyeurism statutes as I understand it in the course of the investigation. Uh Mr Ziegler provided a copy of the videotape in an effort to try to show that the act was entirely consensual but in reading the video voyeurism statute, I don't know that that is a defense. If in fact, you've recorded someone who exposes a specified anatomical area during a particular course of conduct that's designed to be private. So if people are engaged in consensual sex, yet one of them records that without the other one's knowledge or consent, that could well be viewed as a violation. On the contrary, Laroe says, when you're in a public place, there's no expectation of privacy when it comes to recording again. We want to be clear here at this point, Christian Ziegler has not been charged with a crime.

Channel: 10 Tampa Bay

Views: 1,248

Keywords: florida, local, news, politics, regional, sarasotacounty

Id: 7hS6D4J1vhA

Length: 1min 48sec (108 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2024