State Police yesterday returned electronic devices belonging to a Boston College computer science student, days after a state Supreme Court judge threw out the search warrant under which the equipment had been seized.

Associate Justice Margot Botsford said police lacked sufficient evidence for a dorm room search.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Margot Botsford on Thursday said that Boston College and Massachusetts State Police had insufficient evidence to search the dorm room of BC senior Riccardo Calixte. During the search, police confiscated a variety of electronic devices, including three laptop computers, two iPod music players, and two cellphones.

Police obtained a warrant to search Calixte's dorm after a roommate accused him of breaking into the school's computer network to change other students' grades, and of spreading a rumor via e-mail that the roommate is gay.

Botsford said the search warrant affidavit presented considerable evidence that the e-mail came from Calixte's laptop computer. But even if it did, she said, spreading such rumors is probably not illegal. Botsford also said that while breaking into BC's computer network would be criminal activity, the affidavit supporting the warrant presented little evidence that such a break-in had taken place.

During a hearing earlier this month, Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney Anne Pogue said State Police computer forensics specialists should be allowed to keep inspecting Calixte's electronic equipment in a bid to uncover evidence of illegal activity. But Botsford disagreed.

"The search warrant affidavit fails to establish probable cause," she wrote. "Accordingly, because the search and seizure were not conducted pursuant to a lawful warrant, all ongoing forensic analysis of the items seized from Calixte must cease, and the items must be returned forthwith."

The ruling drew praise from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet civil liberties organization that assisted in Calixte's defense. "We're grateful that the court was able to see through the Commonwealth's smoke screen and rectify this mistake," said Jennifer Granick, the foundation's civil liberties director.

The confiscated equipment was delivered to the offices of Calixte's attorney yesterday morning.

Earlier this year, Boston College student Riccardo Calixte allegedly pranked his roommate, Jesse Bennefield, by sending out emails saying that Bennefield frequented a gay dating site.

Bennefield wasn't amused. He went to the campus police, who obtained a search warrant for Calixte's computer. At the time, the police argued that the emails might have violated Boston College's terms of service and, therefore, sending them was evidence of computer fraud.

That's very similar to the theory prosecutors relied on to bring charges against Lori Drew in the MySpace suicide case. Drew allegedly helped engineer a plan to create a fake profile of a boy, "Josh," who befriended 13-year-old Megan Meier on MySpace.

"Josh" initially flirted with Megan, but later turned on her and sent a final message stating that the world would be a better place without her. Megan then committed suicide. Drew herself did not send the messages or set up the account, according to the prosecution's chief witness, 20-year-old Ashley Grills, the former babysitter for Drew's daughter.

Still, the government argued that Drew's actions amounted to computer fraud, on the theory that she used an alias to sign up for an account -- which was a violation of MySpace's terms of service.

Last December, a jury found her guilty of three misdemeanors, but the judge in the case is still considering a defense motion to dismiss the charges.

In Massachusetts, Supreme Judicial Court judge Margot Botsford didn't have to spend months upon months pondering the issue. The digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation took up the case and, last week, Botsford ruled that sending the emails was probably not illegal, quashed the search warrant and ordered the police to return Calixte's property.