State v. DiMolfetto

342 Or. App. 456
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 6, 2025
DocketA179213
StatusPublished

This text of 342 Or. App. 456 (State v. DiMolfetto) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. DiMolfetto, 342 Or. App. 456 (Or. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

456 August 6, 2025 No. 712

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF OREGON

STATE OF OREGON, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. JOHN ANTHONY DIMOLFETTO, JR., Defendant-Appellant. Linn County Circuit Court 20CR26835, 20CR58130; A179213 (Control), A179214

Brendan J. Kane, Judge. Argued and submitted December 04, 2024. Zachary J. Stern argued the cause for appellant. Also on the briefs was Stern Law. Michael A. Casper, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent. Also on the brief were Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, and Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General. Before Aoyagi, Presiding Judge, Joyce, Judge, and O’Connor, Judge.* JOYCE, J. In Case No. 20CR26835, convictions on Counts 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 reversed; remanded for resentencing; otherwise affirmed. In Case No. 20CR58130, remanded for resentencing; other- wise affirmed.

______________ * O’Connor, J., vice Mooney, S. J. Cite as 342 Or App 456 (2025) 457 458 State v. DiMolfetto

JOYCE, J.

Defendant was convicted of multiple counts of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, encouraging child sexual abuse, and luring a minor. His convictions were based on evidence that he used anonymous texting appli- cations and false names to contact girls and convince them to send him sexually explicit photos and engage in sexu- ally explicit conduct. On appeal, he raises 31 assignments of error. Those challenges can be broken down into several categories: (1) challenges to the multiple warrants that offi- cers obtained to search the records of the third-party tex- ting applications that he used to contact the victims; (2) a challenge to a warrant to search himself and his phone; (3) challenges to the constitutionality of two statutes under which he was charged, ORS 163.670 and ORS 163.684, as violating his free speech rights; (4) state and federal con- frontation clause challenges to the admission of out-of-court statements by non-testifying complainants; and (5) 23 chal- lenges to the sufficiency of evidence supporting his convic- tions. The state concedes that five of defendant’s convictions should be reversed because they were based on events that occurred outside of the jurisdiction. We accept the state’s concession on those counts and reverse. We otherwise affirm on defendant’s claims of error.

I. MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS

In his first six assignments of error, defendant challenges five warrants, two issued in Washington in April 2020 and three issued in Oregon in May 2020.1 We begin with the April 2020 warrants because our conclusions with respect to those warrants inform the analysis of the May 2020 warrants. As explained below, we conclude that the trial court correctly denied defendant’s motions to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to the April 2020 warrants. We further conclude that the trial court correctly denied defen- dant’s motions to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to the May 2020 warrants.

1 Defendant does not challenge warrants issued in June 2020. Cite as 342 Or App 456 (2025) 459

A. April 2020 Warrants to Search Pinger and TextNow Records We state the uncontroverted facts as recited in the affidavit supporting the request for the search warrant. State v. Burnham, 287 Or App 661, 662, 403 P3d 466 (2017), adh’d to as modified on recons, 289 Or App 783, 412 P3d 1233 (2018). An officer with the Vancouver police depart- ment responded to a report of “possible communication with a minor with immoral intent,” after a mother discovered sexually explicit text messages between her 11-year-old daughter, A, and a self-described 25-year-old man named “Johnny” on the mother’s cell phone. The officer asked A if she would talk to them about the texts, and A refused. A’s mother showed the texts to the officer, and they included the messages between A and Johnny, as well as messages between A and a person named “Karra.” Karra first contacted A on a social media applica- tion called YUBO on March 11, 2020. Karra asked A what her sexual orientation was and asked for A’s phone number, which A provided. During the text conversation that followed, A told Karra that she was 13 years old, and Karra said she was also 13 years old. Karra said she wanted to share a nude picture of her breasts with A and asked A, “Could I see back?” A said, “Um I’m kinda insecure abt that kinda stuff,” and Karra replied, “Me too I’m small but I wanna show I like you and trust you.” Karra sent a nude picture of breasts and said, “Ur turn then.” A sent a picture of her breasts, and Karra said, “lol they hard u turned on?” A said “Nah I’m cold lmao,” to which Karra replied, “Wish I was there I would keep u warm and then they would be hard cause ur turned on haha.” Karra told A that she has a friend who she has phone sex with named “Johnny” and that she wanted A to have phone sex with him. Karra told A that she was going to give Johnny A’s phone number, and then Johnny texted A, introducing himself and asking if A has any pictures. A sent a nonsexual picture of her face. Johnny asked A if he could call her, told her he was 25 years old, and asked how old she was. A told him she was 13 years old. Johnny then sent a series of sexually explicit messages to A. The conver- sation continued over text message the following day, when 460 State v. DiMolfetto

Johnny told A that he loves her, desperately wants to talk to her, and would give her his credit card if she “need[s] love.” Givens, a detective in the cybercrime unit, discov- ered that Karra’s phone number (ending in 0089) was asso- ciated with a communications provider called Pinger and that Johnny’s phone number (ending in 7417) was associated with a communications provider called TextNow. Givens sent “preservation request[s]” to both Pinger and TextNow asking them to preserve data associated with Karra and Johnny’s phone numbers. Givens received information from YUBO, the social media app, and discovered that three photos of a girl, who was approximately 12 to 16 years old, were associated with the YUBO account, and the user was located near Gates, Oregon. The phone number associated with the YUBO account was the same number that Johnny used to communicate with A. Because Johnny’s phone num- ber was associated with YUBO and “Karra” first contacted A through YUBO, Givens suspected that Karra and Johnny were “very likely * * * the same suspect.” In addition to those facts, the affidavit included information about Givens’s training and experience, and averments based on that training and experience, includ- ing that “some suspects with a sexual interest in minor females may create personas of female minors in order to meet and befriend female minors online. They then may use that minor persona to introduce the victim to an adult per- sona, allowing for more interactive contact such as phone calls and video chat.” Further, “[t]hose who produce, receive and attempt to receive child pornography may collect sex- ually explicit or suggestive materials * * * [and] may use these materials to lower the inhibitions of children they are attempting to seduce * * * [and] may correspond with and/ or meet others to share information and materials * * * and often maintain lists of names, addresses, and telephone numbers of individuals with whom they have been in con- tact and who share the same interests in child pornogra- phy.” Givens averred that “[i]n light of the image forwarded by the suspect * * * and the request for images from the minor victim, there is probable cause to believe the suspect has maintained a collection of child pornography * * *.” Cite as 342 Or App 456 (2025) 461

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Bluebook (online)
342 Or. App. 456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dimolfetto-orctapp-2025.