State v. Reeves

280 P.3d 994, 250 Or. App. 294, 2012 WL 2021855, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 718
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJune 6, 2012
Docket07C50616; A142015
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 280 P.3d 994 (State v. Reeves) 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. Reeves, 280 P.3d 994, 250 Or. App. 294, 2012 WL 2021855, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 718 (Or. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

HASELTON, C. J.

Following a bench trial, defendant was convicted of 15 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree, ORS 163.684,1 based on 15 still image and movie files recovered from his personal computer. The trial court rejected defendant’s arguments that all 15 counts should be merged into a single conviction; in doing so, the court apparently relied on the “sufficient pause” provision of ORS 161.067(3) and did not address the state’s contention that the “separate victims” provision of ORS 161.067(2) precluded merger because the children depicted in the images were “victims” of defendant’s violations of ORS 163.684. Defendant appeals the judgment of conviction, arguing, inter alia, that the trial court erred by (1) denying his motion for judgment of acquittal (MJOA) based on purported insufficiency of evidence that he “knowingly duplicated” proscribed material and (2) failing to merge the guilty verdicts into one conviction, ORS 161.067.2 As explained below, we affirm the denial of defendant’s MJOA, but conclude that the evidence does not support nonmerger under ORS 161.067(3). However, we also agree with the state that ORS 161.067(2) is applicable, depending on the number of child victims depicted in the images — which, in turn, depends on factual determinations to be rendered by the trial court in the first instance. Accordingly, we vacate and remand for reconsideration in light of this opinion.

We review the denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal for errors of law, considering the facts and any reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the state to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Hall, 327 Or 568, 570, 966 P2d 208 (1998). We state the facts consistently with that standard of review.

[297]*297On August 14, 2007, Detective Wiltse, a computer forensics specialist for the Salem Police Department, remotely searched defendant’s personal computer and discovered multiple electronic recordings of “sexually explicit conduct involving a child” that were saved on the hard drive. On September 7, 2007, Salem police seized defendant’s computer during a warranted search of his home. Subsequent forensic analysis of the computer revealed that defendant had downloaded Internet-based file-sharing software, which allowed him to search and directly download files from other users’ hard drives. This is called “peer-to-peer” file sharing.

Wiltse initially accessed defendant’s hard drive using similar peer-to-peer file-sharing software. In his testimony at defendant’s trial, Wiltse explained how file sharing works: The searching user opens the file-sharing software and enters a query, which produces a list of matching files that are available for downloading from an online network of other file-sharing users’ computers. The user retrieves a desired file by double-clicking on the file name, which initiates a download. Downloading can be completed by individually double-clicking on each file name or by “highlighting” multiple files in a file list and then double-clicking once to simultaneously initiate multiple downloads. The act of downloading automatically copies the selected file (or files) onto the searching user’s hard drive.

Forensic analysis of defendant’s computer revealed that defendant had utilized the file-sharing software to search for and download hundreds of files, many of which contained recorded images of sexually explicit conduct involving a child. The forensic analysis also showed that, before his computer was seized, defendant had uninstalled the file-sharing software; however, a corresponding temporary folder had not been deleted. Using special software, Wiltse also accessed and searched the “unallocated space” of defendant’s hard drive and located files that defendant had previously deleted.3

[298]*298Based on 15 separate still images and movies recovered from defendant’s computer, the state charged defendant with 15 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree, ORS 163.684.4 Counts 1 through 5 were based on images saved in the temporary file, and Counts 6 through 15 were based on images recovered from the unallocated space in the computer’s hard drive. In each of the 15 identical counts, the state alleged that defendant “did unlawfully and knowingly duplicate a visual recording of sexually explicit conduct involving a child while knowing that creation of the visual recording of sexually explicit conduct involved child abuse.” The state alleged that each count was “an act of the same or similar character” but that each act was “a separate criminal episode.”

During trial, the state introduced into evidence the names of hundreds of still image and movie files that had been downloaded and saved to defendant’s computer. Many of the file names contain words and phrases indicative of depictions of sexual activity involving a child. For example, many of the file names reported the age of the child depicted, [299]*299e.g., “8yo,” the specific body parts, or types of sex acts depicted. Many of the file names contained words strongly indicative of child pornography, e.g., “kiddy,” “pedo,” “kdquality,” and “childlover,” and other less obvious indicators, such as the acronym “pthc,” which stands for “preteen hard core.” On cross-examination, Wiltse acknowledged that the name of a file does not always correspond to the contents of that file, and that even file names “which are strongly indicative that the file would contain child pornography” sometimes do not. The court viewed only the 15 electronic recordings recovered from defendant’s hard drive that formed the basis of the charges.

After the state rested, defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal. Specifically, defense counsel argued:

“[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: My position is that the duplication took place when he downloaded it, and at the time he knowingly duplicated or downloaded the materials, [defendant] might have possessed it then, whatever it was, but [defendant], until he opened it, didn’t know what was in it.
“THE COURT: You say it was duplicated before he had the culpable mental state, basically is what you’re telling me.
“[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: That’s what I’m saying.”

The trial court then denied the motion for judgment of acquittal.

Defendant subsequently raised a different contention in closing argument:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
280 P.3d 994, 250 Or. App. 294, 2012 WL 2021855, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-reeves-orctapp-2012.