Story perspectives

Prosecutors Charge Stop-Cop-City Activist Over Phone Erasure

7/26/2026

Summary

Story summary

Prosecutors charged Sam Tunick (defendant) with obstruction after he entered a duress password that erased his phone on January 24, 2025 in Atlanta.
Prosecutors used a little-known statute criminalizing destruction to avoid seizure, targeting a GrapheneOS phone whose duress password triggers a factory reset.
Tunick’s lawyers say the child-exploitation probe was a pretext to target his Stop Cop City activism and that agents seized his phone without a lawyer or warrant.

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Story summary

Prosecutors charged Sam Tunick (defendant) with obstruction after he entered a duress password that erased his phone on January 24, 2025 in Atlanta.
Prosecutors used a little-known statute criminalizing destruction to avoid seizure, targeting a GrapheneOS phone whose duress password triggers a factory reset.
Tunick’s lawyers say the child-exploitation probe was a pretext to target his Stop Cop City activism and that agents seized his phone without a lawyer or warrant.