A judge will soon have to decide whether the Brown County Sheriff's Office violated the constitutional rights of an accused murderer.
George Burch is accused of murdering 31-year-old Nicole Vanderheyden, before allegedly dumping her in a bellevue field in june of 20-16.
Burch's lawyers say Brown County deputies violated his right against unreasonable search and seisure to get him indicted.
According to the motion, Burch allowed Green Bay Police to search his phone to prove he was not involved in a hit-and-run back then.
The motion claims the sheriff's office then failed to get a warrant to use those records for the murder investigation.
"When the green bay police department was looking for a hit-and-run driver, that was stored and then used by the Brown County Sheriff's Department to place Mr. Burch at certain places and certain times. That was not what Mr. Burch authorized," said Avi Berk, NBC26 legal analyst.
That information was then used to identify Burch's Google account and show he had looked at stories about Vanderheyden's death.
That information lead to a separate warrant for the phone's GPS data.
"I think the motion has some legitamicy. Whether the judge agrees or not is up to the judge. If the evidence is thrown out, I think it makes the prosecution's case a lot more difficult," said Berk.
The defense also says fitbit evidence the prosecution is trying to introduce should be thrown out as well.
The prosecution claims that data would prove Vanderheyden's ex-boyfriend couldn't have committed the crime.
Burch's lawyers counter, saying it's unreliable and shouldn't be allowed to be shown to a jury.
