United States v. Anderson

60 M.J. 548, 2004 CCA LEXIS 152, 2004 WL 1646732
CourtUnited States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedJune 7, 2004
DocketACM 34980
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 60 M.J. 548 (United States v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Anderson, 60 M.J. 548, 2004 CCA LEXIS 152, 2004 WL 1646732 (afcca 2004).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

PRATT, Chief Judge:

Pursuant to a pretrial agreement, the appellant pled guilty to (1) violating 18 U.S.C. § 2251(c)(1)(A) by posting a notice on the Internet seeking to receive or exchange images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, (2) violating 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(l) by transporting child pornography in interstate commerce, (3) violating 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B) by possessing child pornography that had been transported in interstate commerce, and (4) violating Article 92, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 892, by using a government computer to store, display or transmit offensive or obscene materials. The military judge, sitting alone as a general court-martial, accepted the appellant’s pleas and sentenced him to a dishonorable discharge, confinement for 30 months, and reduction to E-1. The convening authority approved the sentence as adjudged.

On appeal before this Court, the appellant asserts that the military judge erred during the sentencing portion of his trial by admitting as aggravation evidence, over defense objection, a Senate Report on the impact of child pornography. We disagree. However, we find error elsewhere, although not raised. Specifically, we find that the appellant’s guilty pleas to some of the specifications are improvident, but can be sustained to lesser included offenses under Article 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 934. Ultimately, we affirm modified findings and the adjudged sentence.

I. Background

The appellant was a fire protection apprentice stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. Beginning in early 2000, using government-provided computers at an on-base “Cyber Café,”1 the appellant used the Internet to access and transport both adult and child pornography. In October 2000, the appellant obtained a personal computer for his on-base home, and began also using that computer for such activities. The appellant maintained 10 email accounts to access “MSN Communities” and “Yahoo Clubs” to look for, and ultimately download, child pornography. At one point, he created and posted two Yahoo “profiles” through which he presented himself as a 14-year-old lesbian offering to exchange sexually explicit pictures.

When a Cyber Café volunteer discovered pornography on several computers, an investigation ensued by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Analysis of the computers led investigators to the appellant, who confessed his activity both at the Cyber Café and at home. A search of the Cyber Café computers resulted in discovery of several hundred pictures, attributable to the appellant, that were identified as suspected child pornography. Similarly, a consent search of the appellant’s home computer disclosed several hundred more pictures of suspected child pornography.2 At trial, the government introduced 25 images of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct including oral sodomy and intercourse involving very young females, young males, and adult males.

[550]*550 II. Providence of Guilty Pleas

In Specifications 1, 2, and 3 of Charge I, the appellant pled guilty to offenses involving images of child pornography—posting a notice seeking such images, transporting such images, and possessing such images. Although not raised as error, we are obliged to examine the providence of these pleas in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234, 122 S.Ct. 1389, 152 L.Ed.2d 403 (2002), and the subsequent Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces’ (CAAF) decision in United States v. O’Connor, 58 M.J. 450 (C.A.A.F.2003).

In determining whether a guilty plea is provident, the test is whether there is a “substantial basis in law and fact” for questioning the plea. United States v. Jordan, 57 M.J. 236, 238 (C.A.A.F.2002) (citing United States v. Prater, 32 M.J. 433, 436 (C.M.A.1991)). In order to establish an adequate factual basis for a guilty plea, the military judge must elicit “factual circumstances as revealed by the accused himself [that] objectively support that plea.” Id. at 238. (quoting United States v. Davenport, 9 M.J. 364, 367 (C.M.A.1980)). We review a military judge’s decision to accept a guilty plea for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Eberle, 44 M.J. 374 (C.A.A.F.1996).

A. Violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(c)(1)(A)

Specification 1 of Charge I charges the appellant with posting a notice on the Internet seeking or offering to receive and exchange visual depictions produced through the use of “a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(c)(1)(A). As this statutory provision does not make use of the term “child pornography,” it does not implicate the definitions of that term which are contained in 18 U.S.C. § 2256(8), a portion of which was held constitutionally overbroad in Free Speech Coalition. During the providence inquiry, the military judge properly described the elements of this offense in terms of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and defined for the appellant the terms “minor” and “sexually explicit conduct” using the definitions contained in 18 U.S.C. § 2256(1) and (2).

Further, many of the actions prohibited in § 2251(c)(1)(A) avoid the legal affliction of offenses under § 2252A because the gravamen of the offense is simply the advertisement of one’s willingness to be involved "with child pornography. If one advertises (as in this case) one’s willingness to receive and exchange such depictions, nothing in the statute requires that the willingness relate to any particular, already existing images. United States v. Pabon-Cruz, 255 F.Supp.2d 200, 209 (S.D.N.Y.2003). Nor, then, does it make sense to afford the appellant the benefit of a debate over the “real” versus “virtual” nature of the images intended for the exchange:

Someone who advertises his desire to receive child pornography, at least without affirmatively specifying that he is seeking only simulated depictions, is directly encouraging the production and distribution of material created by abusing children. A recipient or reader of such an advertisement who is willing to respond has no reason to limit himself to providing simulations, and the person posting the advertisement has every reason to know that he is soliciting or encouraging the creation and distribution of actual child pornography.

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Bluebook (online)
60 M.J. 548, 2004 CCA LEXIS 152, 2004 WL 1646732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-anderson-afcca-2004.