United States v. Alois Wolk

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 30, 2003
Docket02-1179
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Alois Wolk (United States v. Alois Wolk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Alois Wolk, (8th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT ___________

No. 02-1179 ___________

United States of America, * * Appellee, * * v. * Appeal from the United States * District Court for the Alois Larry Wolk, Jr., also known as * Eastern District of Missouri. Larry Wolk, * * Appellant. * * ___________

Submitted: November 7, 2002

Filed: July 30, 2003 ___________

Before RILEY, BEAM, and SMITH, Circuit Judges. ___________

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Alois Larry Wolk, Jr. was convicted of one count of transporting child pornography (violating 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(1)) and three counts of possessing child pornography (violating 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B)). Wolk's primary argument on appeal is that the Supreme Court decision in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002) requires the dismissal of his indictment. Wolk also challenges the district court's1 denial of his suppression motion, his Batson challenge, and his objection to the district court's sentencing enhancement under Section 2G2.2(b)(3) of the Sentencing Guidelines. We find no error and affirm his sentence.

I. As part of an undercover investigation, Detective Sergeant Michael Zaglifa posed as a thirteen-year-old girl with the screen name "AshleyS_13" in an Internet Relay Chat room entitled "preteen 101." Eventually, AshleyS_13 received a request for a private Internet chat from Wolk, who was using the screen name of ^fish^. Wolk then sent AshleyS_13 obscene, graphic photos of children engaging in sex, incest, and bondage. During the conversation, Wolk identified himself as a sixty-year-old man named Simon.

Based upon the chat room exchange and upon information obtained from Wolk's Internet service provider, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) obtained a search warrant for Wolk’s residence. On November 16, 2000, at approximately 9:30 a.m., seven state agents and federal officers executed the search warrant. The officers knocked at the door; Wolk's wife answered and advised them that Wolk was at a training seminar. After attempting to contact Wolk, two of the state officers traveled to Wolk's nearby office and informed him that a search warrant was being executed at his residence. At that time, the officers advised Wolk that although he did not have to return to his residence, his wife wished for him to be there.

Wolk then drove himself home, and the officers followed him. However, at one point the cars were separated, and as a result Wolk arrived before the officers at approximately 10:10 a.m. Upon arrival, he encountered FBI Special Agent Gerald Bell, who informed him that the officers had a search warrant for his residence,

1 The Hon. Stephen N. Limbaugh, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri.

-2- acquired in the course of a child pornography investigation. Wolk then sat down in the living room with Bell and two other officers. Wolk's wife remained in the kitchen with another officer.

Bell told Wolk that "if he wanted to talk[, ]it was of his own free will and that he was free to go at any time[. H]e was not under arrest." Wolk replied that he was willing to talk with them. He admitted to the officers that he had installed a file server2 on his computer, but insisted that he only used it to trade music files.

One officer then told Wolk that the authorities knew there was child pornography in the house. Wolk then admitted that he had child pornography on his computer, that he had been collecting it for two years, and that he had sent child pornography from the file server in his house. Wolk indicated that he archived his file server onto three CD ROMs. The officers then seized the CDs and his computer. On them, officers found numerous pornographic images, a portion of which contained child pornography.

Wolk then voluntarily signed a statement. In the statement, he admitted he (1) used the screen name ^fish^, (2) identified himself as a sixty- to sixty-two-year-old male named Simon, and (3) traded nude internet pictures of adults, teens, and some child pornography. The authorities completed the residential search at approximately 11:30 a.m.

2 A file server is "[a] program, running on a computer, that allows different programs, running on other computers, to access the files of that computer." National Communications Systems, Technology & Standards Division, Telecommunications: Glossary of Telecommunication Terms (1996), available at http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/.

-3- Wolk was then indicted and later convicted of one count of transporting child pornography and three counts of possessing child pornography. His appeal alleges four errors.

II. First, Wolk argues that the Supreme Court decision in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002) requires the dismissal of his indictment. We disagree. Ashcroft, which declared portions of the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 unconstitutional and overbroad, does not provide the relief Wolk seeks.

A. In 1996 Congress passed the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 ("the Act"). Prior to the passage of the Act, the definition of "child pornography" applied to visual depictions of actual minors "engaging in sexually explicit conduct." 18 U.S.C. § 2252 (1994 ed.); Ashcroft, 535 U.S. at 241. After its passage, however, the Act expanded the definition of "child pornography" to criminalize virtual pornography. This included "any visual depiction, including a computer-generated image, that 'is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct,' and [also included] any sexually explicit image that was 'advertised, promoted, presented, described, or distributed in such a manner that convey[ed] the impression' of depicting 'a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.'" United States v. Deaton, 328 F.3d 454, 455 (8th Cir. 2003) (per curium) (citing Ashcroft, 535 U.S. at 239).

However, in Ashcroft, the Supreme Court declared these definitions–found in 18 U.S.C. § 2256(8)(B) and 18 U.S.C. § 2256(8)(D) respectively–unconstitutional and overbroad under the First Amendment. Ashcroft, 535 U.S. at 258. In declaring these provisions unconstitutional, the Court relied upon two of its prior First Amendment decisions: Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973) and New York v. Ferber, 458 U.S. 747 (1982). The Court noted that generally under Miller, pornography can be banned only if it is obscene. Ashcroft, 535 U.S. at 246.

-4- Nevertheless, it observed that under Ferber pornographic images depicting actual children can be proscribed regardless of their obscenity. Id. at 249. The Court observed that Ferber permits such regulation because production of child pornography is "intrinsically related" to child sexual abuse. Child pornography is "a permanent record of a child's abuse [and] the continued circulation itself would harm the child." Id.

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United States v. Alois Wolk, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-alois-wolk-ca8-2003.