The federal search warrant in the local human trafficking and slavery case is online at Full Disclosure's Reading Room. (Also, here's a link to reporter Ted Czech's story about who's fighting human trafficking and what they're doing.) You can look up more documents on this case, or documents on cases in federal court (criminal, civil and bankruptcy) online. Here's how:
Go to the PACER login page. (You'll need to create an account, and PACER will charge you to see documents, but more on that later).
On the search page, pick what kind of record you want. For this example, let's say we're going to look for documents on that human trafficking story. So, click "Criminal."
On the "Region" drop-down menu, select "Pennsylvania," then choose "Middle." (That's federal court in Harrisburg).
In the "Party name" search box, type the name you're looking for -- in this case, "Phan."
Click on the link under "Case No." From the list that comes up you can pick whatever you want, but one easy way to do it is choose "History/documents," then "Sort by" most recent date first, then "Run Query."
When you click on the blue number next to a document, PACER will tell you how many pages it is and what you'll be charged (8 cents a page). If you see documents with a blue 'R' next to them, those are documents that have been downloaded into a public database where you can get the docs for free, thanks to RECAP, a free Firefox download.
In this case, I downloaded several documents in the Phan case, and because I have RECAP on my computer, you can get those docs for free.
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