Petersen v. Sims

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedMarch 10, 2022
Docket1:20-cv-00884
StatusUnknown

This text of Petersen v. Sims (Petersen v. Sims) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Petersen v. Sims, (E.D. Cal. 2022).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 KYLE PETERSEN, No. 1:20-cv-00884-DAD-EPG 11 Plaintiff, ORDER REGARDING SERVICE 12 v. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS, RECOMMENDING THAT DEFENDANT’S 13 ANTHONY SIMS, JR., MOTION TO DISMISS BE GRANTED AND THAT THIS ACTION BE DISMISSED 14 Defendant. OBJECTIONS, IF ANY, DUE WITHIN 15 TWENTY-ONE DAYS 16 (ECF No. 32) 17 Plaintiff Kyle Petersen is a federal inmate proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis in this 18 civil rights action pursuant to Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388 19 (1971). Plaintiff filed his complaint on June 25, 2020, which alleges that Defendant Anthony 20 Sims, Jr., violated his Fourth Amendment rights by unlawfully searching his cell phones. (ECF 21 No. 1). 22 On January 7, 2022, Defendant filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the Supreme 23 Court’s decision in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994) bars Plaintiff from pursuing his 24 Biven’s action because success on the merits would necessarily imply the invalidity of his 25 conviction. (ECF No. 32). Plaintiff filed a response on January 18, 2022, and Defendant filed a 26 reply on February 4, 2022. (ECF Nos. 33, 34). 27 After review of the parties’ briefs, the Court will recommend that Defendant’s motion to 28 dismiss be granted and that this action be dismissed. 1 I. SUMMARY OF PLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT 2 A. Searches of Cell Phones 3 On February 26, 2019, Defendant Sims, a special agent and computer forensic specialist 4 employed by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), applied for and received a search warrant 5 to search two cell phones—a Unimax model and a LG model—that were seized from Plaintiff. 6 (ECF No. 1, p. 1-3). On February 27, 2019, Sims conducted searches pursuant to that warrant by 7 reanalyzing previously captured forensic images. (Id. at 3). This warrant related to Plaintiff’s 8 underlying criminal case, United States v. Petersen, 1:17-cr-00255-LJO-SKO. (Id. at 2-3). 9 However, the searches were not conducted in accordance with the warrant. (Id. at 3). Defendant 10 reanalyzed previously captured forensic images that had previously been extracted in 2017. (Id.). 11 Those forensic images had already been suppressed in the criminal case. (Id.). Plaintiff argues 12 that the searches violated his Fourth Amendment rights. (See id. at 7-8). 13 B. Criminal Proceedings 14 After Plaintiff was released from California state prison on parole, he was bound by 15 certain agreed conditions, such as being unable to possess a cell phone with a camera and being 16 subject to announced or unannounced examination of his electronic devices. See United States v. 17 Peterson, 995 F.3d 1061, 1063 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 142 S. Ct. 472 (2021).1 A parole agent 18 discovered cell phones (Unimax and LG models) in Plaintiff’s possession on May 23, 2017, and 19 July 6, 2017, finding child pornography. Id. The parole agent seized the cell phones and delivered 20 them to HSI for a forensic search. Id. HSI searched the cell phones after Plaintiff’s parole was 21 revoked. Id. n. 1. 22 On November 2, 2017, Plaintiff was indicted on federal child pornography charges in 23 connection with his Unimax and LG cell phones. (United States v. Peterson, Case No. 17-cr- 24 00255-NONE-SKO, ECF No. 1). Plaintiff, represented by counsel, filed a motion to suppress the 25 evidence found on the Unimax and LG cell phones, claiming that HSI agents violated Plaintiff’s 26

27 1 The Court may take judicial notice of court records. Fed. R. Evid. 201(b); see United States v. Wilson, 631 F.2d 118, 119 (9th Cir.1980). Additionally, the Court notes that Petersen also goes by “Peterson,” 28 which is why the latter spelling is used on appeal. 1 Fourth Amendment rights by searching the cell phones after his parole had been formally 2 revoked. (Id. at ECF No. 24). 3 Although the government initially opposed the motion, after further investigation, the 4 government filed a non-opposition brief to the motion to suppress. (Id. at ECF Nos. 25, 33). The 5 District Court thus granted the motion to suppress and suppressed the evidence obtained by HSI 6 from the cell phones seized on May 23, 2017 (the Unimax model) and July 6, 2017 (the LG 7 model). (Id. at ECF No. 35). Defendant Sims subsequently obtained a warrant to search the 8 Unimax and LG cell phones on February 26, 2019. (Id. at ECF No. 41-2, p. 19). The government 9 alleged that no information from the prior searches was used in obtaining the warrant in February 10 2019 to search the cell phones. (Id.). 11 Plaintiff filed another motion to suppress, this time challenging the evidence seized from 12 the parole searches of the cell phones and the searches pursuant to the February 2019 warrant. (Id. 13 at ECF No. 38). After hearing oral argument, the District Court denied the motion. (See id. at 14 ECF No. 46). 15 Thereafter, Plaintiff entered a conditional plea agreement, preserving his right to appeal 16 the denial of his motion to suppress. (Id. at ECF No. 50). As for the factual basis for his plea, 17 Plaintiff agreed to the following facts: 18 Defendant, from approximately April 28, 2017 and continuing through approximately May 23, 2017, in Kern County, within the State and Eastern District 19 of California and elsewhere, did knowingly receive one or more matters which contained any visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct as 20 defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 2256, and was of such conduct, and had been produced using materials which had been mailed, shipped, or 21 transported in interstate or foreign commerce. Specifically, the defendant received 22 [] both a Unimax cellular phone and an LG cellular phone, which were each manufactured in China and therefore traveled in foreign commerce, at least one 23 image file which contained a visual depiction, the producing of which involved the use of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct and was of such conduct, and 24 which had traveled in interstate commerce, all in violation of Title 18, United 25 States Code, Section 2252(a)(2). Defendant received at least 150 images but fewer than 300 images of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, 26 and these images included depictions of pre-pubescent minors engaged in sado- masochistic conduct. 27 (Id. at ECF No. 50, p. 8). 28 1 Plaintiff was sentenced to 162 months in prison. (Id. at ECF No. 67). He appealed, 2 challenging, in part, the evidence obtained via the parole searches and the February 2019 warrant. 3 Peterson, 995 F.3d at 1068. However, the Ninth Circuit concluded that Plaintiff had a diminished 4 expectation of privacy as a parolee and thus the district court “appropriately denied Peterson’s 5 motion to suppress with respect to the parole searches.” Peterson, 995 F.3d at 1068. As to the 6 evidence obtained as a result of the February 2019 warrant, the Ninth Circuit ruled as follows: 7 Peterson argues that the warrantless seizure of his cell phones during the parole searches required suppression of the forensic evidence subsequently obtained by 8 warrant. As just discussed, however, the parole searches were constitutionally permissible, and this argument fails. 9 The Government did not rely on the independent source doctrine because the 10 original parole searches were valid.

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Petersen v. Sims, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/petersen-v-sims-caed-2022.