Ross Harris' lawyers say police were on 'fishing expedition'

The issue, to be decided by Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley,possibly today: should investigators be required to spell out what they expect to find when acquiring a search warrant. Murphy testified, for example, that police had “no idea” what they would find on a thumb drive owned by Harris.

In one of the application hearings, videotaped and replayed in court, Murphy said he was looking for “any kind of research on hot car deaths, communication with other females, any information about business, finances …”

The defense wants all such evidence suppressed.

The hearing's first day, on Monday, provided the first real glimpse into Harris' defense strategy for a trial set to begin in a little more than two months.

In their 35-page motion to suppress much of the electronic evidence collected by police, Harris' attorneys accused Cobb County police of repeatedly relying on hyperbole, or worse, to obtain search warrants without probable cause. Harris, a former Home Depot web developer, pleaded not guilty to charges including malice murder, felony murder and cruelty to children. He has been held without bond since June 2014.

“They want to just go on a fishing expedition and see what they could find,” said defense co-counsel T. Bryan Lumpkin.

But the defense offered no bombshells revealing cover-ups or conspiracies to commit fraud. Instead, their strategy seemed to aim for a death by 1,000 cuts.

The challenge will be proving whether investigators were “intentionally misleading or mendacious,” said Marietta defense lawyer and former prosecutor Philip Holloway, who observed Monday’s proceedings but is not connected to the case.

The defense argued that police targeted Harris from the moment they observed him talking on his phone in the Akers Mill Square parking lot, where he said he first discovered his son’s lifeless body.

Cobb Police Detective Jacquelyn Piper testified Monday that she took Harris’ phone away from him after he became confrontational with another officer at the scene. Harris was not a suspect at the time, and the defense argued that his phone was seized “without consent, without obtaining a search warrant … a clear violation of defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights.”

Piper said she placed her hands on Harris and he then became compliant. Still, she bound him with two pairs of handcuffs and refused Harris’ request to call the daycare facility — where he was supposed to have dropped off 22-month-old Cooper — to tell the daycare what had happened.

Further warrants were obtained in part because of the lack of emotion showed by Harris and his wife, Leanna, in the hours after their only child’s death, Murphy, the homicide investigator, testified.

“Yet you did not relate to the magistrate the emotion showed by Mr. Harris on the scene,” Lumpkin said, referencing a witness in the parking lot who described Harris as being “very upset” and “hysterical.”

The defense also homed in on the assertion by police that Harris and his wife told investigators they had researched how long it would take for a child to die in a hot car.

But according to Lumpkin, the defense attorney, Ross Harris said only that the thought of his son dying in such a manner was one of his “biggest fears.” Leanna Harris said she was likewise concerned and had “heard about it on the news.”

“Your definition of research is anything that crosses your path that you might hear or see,” Lumpkin told the investigator.

In an opening statement, Cobb Deputy Chief District Attorney Jesse Evans said any discrepancies are, at worst, “inaccuracies.” The prosecution had little face time Monday in a session dominated by defense questioning. The hearing will continue Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Judge Staley said Monday she was determined to start the trial as scheduled on Feb. 22, calling the timetable "reasonable" and "doable."