United States v. Hinkel

837 F.3d 111, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 591, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 17142, 2016 WL 5030327
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedSeptember 20, 2016
Docket15-1672P
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 837 F.3d 111 (United States v. Hinkel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First 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. Hinkel, 837 F.3d 111, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 591, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 17142, 2016 WL 5030327 (1st Cir. 2016).

Opinion

KAYATTA, Circuit Judge.

After being ensnared by a law enforcement sting operation, Paul Hinkel was charged with using a means of interstate commerce (the internet) to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b). He was convicted following a jury trial and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment, to be followed by five years’ supervised release. On appeal, he claims that a variety of alleged errors undermined the integrity of the jury’s verdict and the appropriateness of his sentence. After careful review, we affirm both Hinkel’s conviction and the bulk of the sentence imposed by the district court, finding cause to alter only two conditions of Hinkel’s supervised release.

I. Background

At trial, the government relied chiefly on evidence of electronic messages exchanged between Hinkel and government agents posing as a fifteen-year-old girl and her mother. Because Hinkel’s challenge trains partly on the sufficiency of the government’s evidence, we summarize this back-and-forth in considerable detail, vulgar and lewd as it is.

On February 14, 2014, an agent with the Department of Homeland Security placed a personal advertisement on the “Casual Encounters” online message board, a subsection of the website Craigslist frequented by those seeking adult sex partners. Using the name “Lisa Richards,” the agent *116 published a post entitled “mom with daughter looking — w4m—38 (Boston).” 1 In its entirety, the post stated: “open minded mom DDF with daughter looking for male that might be interested in taboo, relationship, some dom.needs to be dis-creete though, if you have an interest in a interesting relationship contact me, use in-tersting in subject line, we will chat off CL.” 2

At 12:54 pm that day, Craigslist user “ctautumn,” later identified as Hinkel, responded to the advertisement via email using the subject line “VERY INTERESTING AND INTRIGUING.” Hinkel told “Lisa” that he was “an experienced Daddy/Dom and [he] ha[d] been looking for this type of scenario.” He then listed some of his “taste[s]” and provided graphic descriptions of sexual acts that he imagined engaging in with “Lisa” and her daughter. Forty-five minutes later, the agent responded, writing that “she” was “trying to introduce [her] daughter to sex” and asking if Hinkel “mind[ed] if- shes young?” Prompted by Hinkel’s responsive request for her daughter’s age, “Lisa” informed Hinkel that her daughter “Samantha” was “15 but experienced.”

Seven minutes later, at 2:05 pm, Hinkel responded: “Sounds very naughty! I am concerned about her age since legally she should be 16 or older.” 3 He asked whether “Lisa’s” daughter had “played in this type of scene before” and whether “Mommy and daughter play together as well,” stating that he found “that kind of play so very erotic,” and that it was a “big turn on for [him].” In response, at 2:10 pm, “Lisa” wrote, “shes not [16 or older] so i guess this conversation is over.” But Hinkel insisted otherwise, replying, one minute later, to say, “Nope. It is not over! I want to talk more! I’m very intrigued by it all. Such taboo and naughty play!!!!”

Over the course of roughly the next month, Hinkel corresponded frequently and in lurid detail with “Lisa” and her fictitious daughter “Samantha.” In subsequent emails, “Lisa” told Hinkel that she was looking for a man to “teach[] her [daughter]” and that she wanted “Samantha” “to experience sex with a man the right way.” Hinkel frequently expressed eagerness to perform this role, describing his own sexual desires in detail. From time to time, though, he also expressed what he called “conflicting feelings” regarding the criminal conduct he was preparing to engage in. At one point Hinkel told “Lisa”:

I once placed an ad looking for this very type of scenario, but to be honest the ad stated that the daughter was to be of legal age. I was taken back a bit when you said she wasn’t. The last thing I want to do to any girl is damage her emotionally. I’m very caring. As long as she is desires this, I am game.

On another occasion, Hinkel wrote “Lisa” that when he arrived to meet “Samantha” he would “play it by ear and *117 gauge it based on Samantha’s feelings and comfort level,” saying that he was “nervous ... [to] be with such a young girl” and “sooooooooo very concerned about her and how she will feel.’’ “Lisa” reassured Hinkel, saying “i think you will love her., .and i appreciate the way you describe our situation :),” telling him that the planned encounter would be “such an amazing experience for us to have together.”

Hinkel and “Lisa.” formed plans to stage their encounter with “Samantha” at “Lisa’s home” in Watertown, Massachusetts, on March 19, 2014. A week before, Hinkel exchanged emails directly with “Samantha.” Referring to her as “sweetheart,” Hinkel promised to make the experience “fun and enjoyable” for this fifteen-year-old girl. When “Samantha” said that she liked it when she “rub[bed] herself,”'Hink-el asked if she would like him to “touch [her] there as well.” In one of his final messages to “Lisa,” Hinkel asked whether “Samantha” knew she could never tell anyone about their planned encounter because, in his words, “you and I can get into a lot of trouble. Even years later.”

On the appointed day, Hinkel arrived at the Watertown residence where he was greeted by arresting officers. He consented to a search of the bag he was carrying and of a lockbox in his vehicle. These searches — and later searches of his home and work computers — yielded evidence, ultimately introduced at trial, that we will discuss in greater detail later in this opinion.

II. Analysis

Hinkel does not contest that he was the author of the “ctautumn” emails and text messages sent to the government agents. His chief defense at trial was entrapment.

The defense of entrapment “exists to prevent ‘abuse[ ]’ of the ‘processes of detection and enforcement ... by government officials’ who might instigate an illegal ‘act on the part of persons otherwise innocent in order to lure them- to its commission and, to punish them.’ ” United States v. Díaz-Maldonado, 727 F.3d 130, 137 (1st Cir. 2013) (alterations in original) (quoting Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 448, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932)). When the defense is properly raised, we apply a two-part test. First, we look at the government’s conduct to see if it is of the type that would cause a person not otherwise predisposed to commit a crime to do so. See id. Examples of such “government overreaching” include “excessive pressure by the government upon the defendant or the government’s taking advantage of an alternative, noncriminal type of motive.” United States v. Gendron, 18 F.3d 955, 961-62 (1st Cir. 1994). If the government does employ “methods of persuasion or inducement that create a substantial risk that ...

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Bluebook (online)
837 F.3d 111, 101 Fed. R. Serv. 591, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 17142, 2016 WL 5030327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-hinkel-ca1-2016.