United States v. McLellan

792 F.3d 200, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 11588, 2015 WL 4071914
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJuly 6, 2015
Docket14-1561
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 792 F.3d 200 (United States v. McLellan) 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. McLellan, 792 F.3d 200, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 11588, 2015 WL 4071914 (1st Cir. 2015).

Opinion

TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.

On February 19, 2010, law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at 180 High Street in Taunton, Massachusetts as part of an investigation into an individual using the online usernames “ba-bylick” and “a35scott” to trade child pornography. After speaking with one of the co-owners (who was also an occupant), the officers searched the entiré single-family residence, including the bedroom of Appellant David McLellan, who was renting a bedroom in the residence. In McLellan’s bedroom, officers seized numerous electronics containing more than 6.3 million images and videos of child pornography and files depicting McLellan sexually abusing an infant. McLellan was subsequently indicted on one count of sexual exploitation of children under 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) and one count of transporting child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(1). Following the denial of his request for a Franks hearing and for suppression of the evidence seized during the search, McLellan pleaded guilty, specifically reserving his right to appeal the district court’s rulings. Finding no error with these rulings, we affirm.

I. Background

This investigation began in February 2008, when Canadian authorities alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) that an individual in or near Boston, Massachusetts was using the user-name babylick to post images of child pornography to an online bulletin board system. A few months later, in June 2008, the FBI obtained from Yahoo! the user information for the username a35seott. They learned that a35seott self-identified as Ádam Scott from Medford, Massachusetts and that he had logged into Yahoo! from seven different IP addresses between January and May of 2008. 1 Three of the IP addresses were linked to Verizon accounts assigned to Dennis Truso in Boston, Massachusetts, one was linked to a Comcast account assigned to Greg Little in East Boston, Massachusetts, and the other two were linked to accounts in Boston, Massachusetts, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Notably, one of the IP addresses linked to Dennis Truso matched the IP address provided by the Canadian authorities in relation to babylick, thus suggesting that the two usernames belonged to the same individual.

The FBI continued investigating a35scott, and by March 2009, it had issued a report identifying him as an active member in the Multiply.com e-group 2 *205 “YOUCANTSEEMETOO,” where he was observed posting and trading child pornography. Though the zipcode associated with a35scott’s Multiply.com account was in California, the IP addresses were once again traced to the internet accounts of Dennis Truso and Greg Little. The report noted, however, that a35scott was not necessarily Dennis Truso or Greg Little, but might be another member of the Tru-so or Little household, or another person entirely.

For reasons unclear from the record, the investigation into a35scott appears to have gone quiet from March 2009 through December 2009. The investigation resumed on December 1-, 2009, however, when FBI Special Agent Raj Patel, acting in an undercover capacity, logged on to Gigatribe.com, a peer-to-peer (“P2P”) file-sharing network. Like other P2P networks such as Napster, Kazaa, and Lime-wire, Gigatribe allows a user who has downloaded the service’s software to directly connect to other users’ computers in order to search and download files that other users have designated for sharing. Unlike the traditional P2P network, however, the Gigatribe system requires a user to already know another user’s username and to be accepted by that other user before contact and file-sharing can occur. The Gigatribe files are also encrypted when they are exchanged. Because of these added layers of security, Gigatribe has become a preferred P2P system for trafficking child pornography.

When Agent Patel logged in to Gigatribe on December 1, he observed a35scott logged in as well. Agent Patel proceeded to browse a35seott’s shared directory and discovered numerous files with names indicative of child pornography, such as “!- baby unsorted” and “7yo private, cbaby and dea (5yo).” He selected three files to download, but, midway through the downloads, a35scott blocked Agent Patel’s access. As a result, two of the three files were only partially downloaded and could not be opened. The third file, however, titled “Boner0170 (Thai boys).jpg,” was fully downloaded (the “December 1 Download”). This file contained a collage of twenty-five images of child pornography, mostly consisting of two prepubescent boys either partially clothed or naked with a focus on their genitals.

The FBI was able to trace the file’s origin to a single IP address— 173.76.210.90. This IP address was registered to Verizon and, according to Verizon’s records, was assigned to the residential high speed internet service account of Darryl J. St. Yves, located at 180 High Street in Taunton, Massachusetts. The FBI confirmed St. Yves’s residential address with both the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (“RMV”) and the United States Postal Service (“USPS”), and agents visibly observed that a single mailbox at 180 High Street listed St. Yves and two other occupants — Keller and Theobold.

Armed with this information, FBI Special Agent John Locke applied for a search warrant for 180 High Street on February 11, 2010. In his affidavit in support of the warrant, Special Agent Locke recounted the investigation by Special Agent Patel linking the Gigatribe download to an IP address belonging to the account of St. Yves, as well as the FBI’s subsequent confirmation that St. Yves lived at 180 High Street both at the time of the download and at the time of the affidavit. The affidavit also described how individuals involved in the transportation and possession of child pornography often keep their pornography close by in secure locations and how complicated forensic examinations of electronics are often necessary to discover the hidden files containing child pornography. Accordingly, the affidavit concluded *206 that there was “probable cause to believe that there exists evidence, fruits and in-strumentalities” of the crimes of the transportation and possession of child pornography at 180 High Street and that “Darryl J. St. Yves and/or other residents, as yet unknown,” committed those crimes. The magistrate judge agreed and issued the search warrant.

Notably, the affidavit omitted certain information presumably known to Agent Locke. For example, it did not reference either the February 2008 Canadian tip regarding “babylick” or the March 2009 report detailing the FBI’s investigation into a35seott’s involvement in the YOUCANT-SEEMETOO e-group on Multiply.com. It also failed to mention that this activity had been linked to IP addresses traced to Dennis Truso, Greg Little, and two others, and not to Darryl J. St. Yves. The affidavit did, however, state that it did “not contain every fact known to [Special Agent Locke] with respect to this investigation” but rather “it contain[ed] those facts that [he] believe[d] to be necessary to establish probable cause for issuance of a search warrant” for 180 High Street.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Commonwealth v. Yulian Rosado
Massachusetts Superior Court, 2025
United States v. Jackson
118 F.4th 447 (First Circuit, 2024)
United States v. Gonzalez
113 F.4th 140 (First Circuit, 2024)
United States v. Corleto
56 F.4th 169 (First Circuit, 2022)
United States v. Encarnacion
26 F.4th 490 (First Circuit, 2022)
United States v. O'Neal
17 F.4th 236 (First Circuit, 2021)
United States v. Leonard
17 F.4th 218 (First Circuit, 2021)
State v. Ralph Resiner
Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 2021
David Jones v. Clark Cty., Ky.
959 F.3d 748 (Sixth Circuit, 2020)
Commonwealth v. Andre
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2020
United States v. Veloz
948 F.3d 418 (First Circuit, 2020)
United States v. Robert Corleto
2020 DNH 009 (D. New Hampshire, 2020)
Commonwealth v. Turpin, D., Aplt.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2019
United States v. Figueroa-Figueroa
388 F. Supp. 3d 70 (U.S. District Court, 2019)
United States v. Pothier
919 F.3d 143 (First Circuit, 2019)
United States v. Owens
917 F.3d 26 (First Circuit, 2019)
United States v. Barbosa
896 F.3d 60 (First Circuit, 2018)
United States v. Rodrigues
850 F.3d 1 (First Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Arias
848 F.3d 504 (First Circuit, 2017)
Commonwealth v. Molina
71 N.E.3d 117 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
792 F.3d 200, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 11588, 2015 WL 4071914, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mclellan-ca1-2015.