Doe v. Hesketh

15 F. Supp. 3d 586, 2014 WL 1661160, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57752
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 25, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 13-4935
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 15 F. Supp. 3d 586 (Doe v. Hesketh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doe v. Hesketh, 15 F. Supp. 3d 586, 2014 WL 1661160, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57752 (E.D. Pa. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

DALZELL, District Judge.

Plaintiff Jane Doe seeks statutory redress under 18 U.S.C. § 2255 for her victimization in the child-porn trade when she was a minor by suing a putative class of men convicted of- illegally possessing her image, including defendants Dan W. Joa-chim, Mayer Finkelstein and Charles Lin-dauer. These three defendants each pled guilty in their respective Districts to possession of child pornography after which the Department of Justice sent Doe a notice that her image was among those in each defendant’s possession.

Before us now are Joachim, Finkelstein and Lindauer’s individual motions to dismiss Doe’s amended complaint which we will consider together because they make identical arguments,1 i.e., that we lack personal jurisdiction over each defendant; each defendant is not an appropriate representative of the putative defendant class; the statute under which Doe sued is void for vagueness under the Fifth Amendment; and the complaint impermissibly seeks punitive damages under a statute that permits recovery of actual damages alone. Doe opposes the three defendants’ motions and seeks jurisdictional discovery to show that we have jurisdiction over these defendants.

For the reasons detailed below, we will grant these defendants’ motions to dismiss on the basis of personal jurisdiction and accordingly we will not reach the Rule 12(b)(6) questions.2

I. Factual and procedural background

A. The Parties

From the age of five Doe was filmed being repeatedly raped and sexually abused by her then-adoptive father, defendant Matthew Mancuso, who then distributed those images over the Internet. First Amended Complaint (“FAC”) at 2. Most of these acts took place in Mancuso’s home in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but others were filmed during their annual trips to Disney World — including a widely distributed series through which Doe became known as “Disney World Girl.” Id. 1112. Mancuso distributed in secret online chatrooms some two hundred images of Doe in exchange for pictures and videos of other children being sexually abused. Id. ¶ 13.

[590]*590Doe alleges that the named defendants and others “conspired with each other, and with members of the class, to share and distribute these and other illegal child-abuse images, largely by means of the so-called ‘darknet,’ a collection of secure websites, online chatrooms, bulletin-board sites, and peer-to-peer file-sharing computer networks that communicate via the Internet but are specifically designed to conceal the participants’ personal identifying information.” Id. at 4. She further alleges that, because the images are illegal, defendants “operated under an agreement to protect each other’s anonymity [by] communicating with each other remotely under fictitious usernames.” Id.

With respect to those moving to dismiss, Doe alleges that defendant Joachim pled guilty in 2012 to receipt of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2). Id. at ¶ 30. As part of the conduct of his offense, Doe alleges that Joachim “communicated with other possessors and distributors of child pornography by means of the Internet,” using a fictitious screen name to advertise, distribute and receive illegal images — including of Doe — through “websites, chatrooms, and other modes of online communication.” Id. at ¶ 31. Joachim’s last known address before his incarceration was in Metairie, Louisiana. Id.

As to defendant Finkelstein, Doe alleges that in 2007 he pled guilty to possessing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B). Id. ¶ 57. Doe alleges that Finkelstein “communicated with others via the Internet to distribute and receive images of child sexual abuse.” Id. ¶ 58. Doe’s image was among the 14,000 still images and 324 videos that federal agents found on his home and law-office computers. Id. His last known address prior to his incarceration was New Orleans, Louisiana.

Doe alleges that defendant Lindauer pled guilty in 2010 to one count of transporting child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(l) and 2252A(b)(l)3 and one count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252a(a)(5)(B)4 and 2252A(b)(2). Id. at ¶42. He was sentenced in 2011 to nine years’ imprisonment. Id. Doe alleges that Lindauer “used a particular type of peer-to-peer file-sharing software that is commonly used by child pornographers to conceal their identifying information when interacting with one another and trading illegal images.” Id. ¶ 43. She further alleges that, using the pseudonym “For-Vicky,” Lindauer received and distributed hundreds of digital pictures and videos, among them depictions of the rape and sexual abuse of small children including Doe. Id. Lindauer’s last known address before his incarceration was in Charlottes-ville, Virginia. Id. ¶ 44.

B. Procedural History

Doe brings this lawsuit under 18 U.S.C. § 2255, which is known as “Masha’s Law” and named after this plaintiff. Id. at 2. The statute provides in relevant part:

Any person who, while a minor, was a victim of a violation of [a predicate offense] and who suffers personal injury as a result of such violation, regardless of whether the injury occurred while such person was a minor, may sue in any appropriate United States District Court and shall recover the actual damages such person sustains and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee. Any person as described in [591]*591the preceding sentence shall be deemed to have sustained damages of no less than $150,000 in value.

18 U.S.C. § 2255(a). Doe rehearses that any plaintiff who establishes a claim under Masha’s Law may recover a minimum of $150,000 in damages from each defendant “[a]s a punitive deterrent to such crimes[ ] and in recognition of both the magnitude of the damages resulting to the victim and the difficulty of precisely calculating the amount of such damages.” FAC at 5. Doe seeks “at least” the $150,000 in statutory minimum damages from each member of the putative class. Id.

The United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) identified each of the named defendants as having “received, possessed, and/or distributed one or more of the illicit images” Mancuso created of Doe and each defendant was convicted of a predicate offense to 18 U.S.C. § 2255. Id. ¶ 15.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 F. Supp. 3d 586, 2014 WL 1661160, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57752, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doe-v-hesketh-paed-2014.