Defendants Must Return Documents

United States v. Rigas, 2003 WL 22203721 (S.D. N.Y. Sept. 22 2003). After the United States Attorney's office received 23 hard drives through a discovery request they were placed on the agency's network system. A paralegal inadvertently copied privileged government information onto the same area where the hard drives were stored. These "hard drives" were subsequently disclosed to the defendants who moved the court to retain the privileged material. The court held the disclosure of the privileged material did not waive the privilege.