An attorney for a Bradenton Beach man arrested for pornography has turned to the state appeal court with his demand for the suppression of key evidence in the case.
Joseph Edmund Chiquet, 34, of the 500 block of Gulf Drive South in Bradenton Beach, was arrested July 14, 2009, for allegedly engaging in sexual activity with a minor.
Chiquet’s defense attorney has argued in court papers for the suppression of evidence taken from Dell and Apple computers because the equipment allegedly was not covered in a search warrant.
The defense further has argued in motions that the warrant signed by a judge was “overbroad.”
In a separate motion, Chiquet’s defense attorney maintains that the defendant’s statements to authorities should be suppressed because they were “not voluntarily made.”
A Manatee County circuit judge dismissed the motions to suppress in mid-June, as well as denied a motion for a rehearing on the requests.
Now an appeal is with Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.
Chiquet is facing 27 counts of possessing and promoting child pornography, as well as a separate but related charge of witness tampering.
Chiquet, according to a Bradenton Beach police report, allegedly met the teenager in January 2009 at a skateboard shop he was operating in Bradenton
The report indicated that the teenager said she and Chiquet had a sexual relationship, and that he took sexual photographs of her in his apartment that were downloaded to his computer.