United States v. Forrester

495 F.3d 1041, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 17626, 2007 WL 2120271
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided July 25, 2007·No. 05-50410, 05-50493·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

ORDER

The opinion filed July 6, 2007, at 2007 WL 1952390, at *2, and slip opinion page 8075, lines 24-30, is amended as follows: At slip op. page 8075, lines 24-30, replace the two sentences starting with “The surveillance began ...” with the following language: The surveillance began in May 2001 after the government applied for and received court permission to install a pen register analogue known as a “mirror port” on Alba’s account with PacBell Internet. The mirror port was installed at Pae-B ell’s connection facility in San Diego, and enabled the government to learn the to/ from addresses of Alba’s e-mail messages, the IP addresses of the websites that Alba visited and the total volume of information sent to or from his account.

OPINION

FISHER, Circuit Judge:

Defendants-appellants Mark Stephen Forrester and Dennis Louis Alba were charged with various offenses relating to the operation of a large Ecstasy-manufacturing laboratory, and were convicted on all counts following a jury trial. They now appeal their convictions and sentences.

Forrester moved to represent himself prior to trial. At the hearing on this motion, the district court carefully warned Forrester of the dangers of self-representation, but did not inform him of the charge against him and told him that he faced 10 years to life in prison whereas he actually faced a potential prison term of zero to 20 years. The omission and the misstatement compel us to hold that For-rester’s waiver of his right to counsel was not knowing and intelligent and that the Sixth Amendment was violated when he was allowed to proceed pro se. Accordingly, we reverse Forrester’s conviction and sentence.

Alba challenges the validity of computer surveillance that enabled the government to learn the to/from addresses of his e mail messages, the Internet protocol (“IP”) addresses of the websites that he visited and the total volume of information transmitted to or from his account. We conclude that this surveillance was analogous to the use of a pen register that the Supreme Court held in Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 99 S.Ct. 2577, 61 L.Ed.2d 220 (1979), did not constitute a search for Fourth Amendment purposes. Moreover, whether or not the surveillance came within the scope of the then-applicable federal pen register statute, Alba is not entitled to the suppression of the evidence obtained through the surveillance because there is no statutory or other authority for such a remedy. 1

I. Background

Following a lengthy government investigation, Forrester and Alba were indicted on October 26, 2001, and arraigned shortly thereafter. Forrester was charged with *1044 one count of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute 3, 4-methylenedioxymeth-amphetamine (“Ecstasy”) in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846. Alba was also charged with that offense, as well as with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848(a), conspiracy to transfer funds outside the United States in promotion of an illegal activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(2)(A)(i), (h) and conspiracy to conduct financial transactions involving the proceeds of an illegal activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)®, (h). Both defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Forrester is represented by counsel on appeal. He also had legal representation from the time his indictment was filed until October 23, 2002, when the district court heard and granted his motion to represent himself, as well as during some of the post-trial proceedings. At the October 23 hearing, the court repeatedly warned Forrester that defendants who represent themselves rarely succeed. The court said to Forres-ter, for example, “I want to unequivocally tell you and strongly recommend to you that you don’t do this. In most cases it’s a disaster,” and “in all cases it is not a good idea for a nonlawyer to oppose a lawyer in a criminal trial.” Forrester, in turn, repeatedly assured the court that he understood the implications of his decision and wished to proceed pro se. He told the court that he was “aware of the consequences” and that “I’m coherent and I’m literate and I understand what my consequences are.” Unfortunately, the court did not apprise Forrester of the charge against him at the hearing, and gave him incorrect information about the potential sentence that he faced. The court said that he faced “a mandatory minimum of ten years in jail and possibly up to life.” In fact, Forrester faced no mandatory minimum and a maximum of 20 years in prison. 2

The district court held a follow-up hearing on March 7, 2003 to find out how Forrester was coping with self-representation. The court confirmed that Forrester had access to discovery materials, instructed him to be more timely with his motions and rejected his request for the appointment of a new standby attorney. However, the court again did not inform Forres-ter of the charge against him, nor did it correct its error about his potential sentence. The court’s omission and misstatement were not corrected at any other point before trial.

During its investigation of Forrester and Alba’s Ecstasy-manufacturing operation, the government employed various computer surveillance techniques to monitor Alba’s e-mail and Internet activity. The surveillance began in May 2001 after the government applied for and received court permission to install a pen register analogue known as a “mirror port” on Alba’s account with PacBell Internet. The mirror port was installed at PacBell’s connection facility in San Diego, and enabled the government to learn the to/from addresses of Alba’s e-mail messages, the IP addresses of the websites that Alba visited and the total volume of information sent to or from his account. Later, the government obtained a warrant authorizing it to employ imaging and keystroke monitoring techniques, but Alba does not challenge on appeal those techniques’ legality or the government’s application to use them.

Forrester and Alba were tried by jury. At trial, the government introduced extensive evidence showing that they and their associates built and operated a major Ec *1045 stasy laboratory. Witnesses described the lab as “very, very large,” and seized documents show that it was intended to produce approximately 440 kilograms of Ecstasy (and $10 million in profit) per month. The government also presented evidence that Alba purchased precursor chemicals for Ecstasy, that Forrester met with a Swedish chemist in Stockholm to learn about manufacturing Ecstasy, that the defendants first tried to construct the lab in two other locations before settling on Escondido, California and that the Escondido lab was located inside an insulated sea/land container and contained an array of devices and chemicals used to make Ecstasy.

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United States v. Forrester, 495 F.3d 1041, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 17626, 2007 WL 2120271 (9th Cir. 2007).

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