United States v. Paul Beckmann

786 F.3d 672, 2015 WL 2330455
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 15, 2015
Docket-14-3086
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 786 F.3d 672 (United States v. Paul Beckmann) 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. Paul Beckmann, 786 F.3d 672, 2015 WL 2330455 (8th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

[Published]

HARPOOL, District Judge.

Paul Beckmann pled guilty to one count of possession of child pornography after having been previously convicted and sentenced for possession of child pornography in 2001. See 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), (b)(2). The district court 2 sentenced Beck-mann to 120 months of imprisonment, a lifetime of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $9,000 of restitution. On appeal, Beckmann asserts that the district court erred by: (1) denying his motion to suppress evidence found on an external hard drive as the result of an illegal search under the Fourth Amendment; (2) denying his motion to suppress evidence as the result of an intentional and deliberate violation of Rule 41; and (3) ordering restitution in the amount of $9,000. We affirm.

I.

Since Beckmann’s conviction for possession of child pornography in 2001, Beck-mann has been required to register as a sex offender. On August 2, 2011, as part of a routine sex offender verification through the United States Marshal’s Office, Jefferson County Deputies Barbato and Thebeau visited Beckmann’s home. The purpose of the visit was to verify Beckmann’s address and to ensure that he was complying with any conditions related to his status as a sex offender.

Upon arrival, the deputies knocked on Beckmann’s door, told him they were there for sex offender verification and asked to enter his home. Beckmann consented. Once inside, the deputies observed a laptop computer on the coffee table. Beck-mann informed the officers that he was *676 under no supervised release conditions and that he was lawfully allowed to have a computer and internet access. Deputy Barbato asked to look through the contents of Beckmann’s laptop in order to “make sure he was not accessing any content he’s not supposed to be accessing.” Beckmann consented. While Deputy Bar-bato searched the laptop, Beckmann showed Deputy Thebeau around the rest of the residence. Deputy Thebeau alerted Deputy Barbato that there Was another computer in the upstairs office. He then obtained permission to use the upstairs restroom. Deputy Barbato proceeded upstairs partially for safety reasons and partially because he wanted to make sure Defendant was not “going through anything he shouldn’t be.”

When Deputy Barbato arrived upstairs and looked into the office where Beckmann went, he saw a computer desk with a monitor on it and Beckmann underneath messing with wires/cords. To alert Beck-mann to his presence, Deputy Barbato asked Beckmann if this was the “other” computer. Beckmann seemed startled and responded yes. Deputy Barbato then asked if he could take a look at that computer, as well. Beckmann consented.

Deputy Barbato sat down and observed one computer tower and two external hard drives underneath the desk. Both of the external hard drives were connected to the tower but the power cord to one of them was unplugged frqm the wall. Deputy Barbato believed that these were the cords Beckmann was manipulating, and he believed that Beckmann had been trying to shut off the computer. The deputy plugged the power cord to the unplugged external hard drive back into the wall and began to search the computer, including the external hard drives. By this time, Beckmann had exited the office. The deputy admitted that he did not get specific consent to search the external hard drives nor did he get consent to plug the one external hard drive back into the wall; however, he considered the external drives to be a part of the “computer” because they were plugged into the computer. During his search, Deputy Barbato discovered file names suggesting child pornography. The deputy asked Beckmann about the suspicious files and Beckmann stated that he did not wish to answer. The officers then placed Beckmann into investigative detention. After speaking with his attorney,, Beckmann signed a consent form allowing the officers to seize the laptop, computer, and external hard drives pending application for a search warrant.

The government obtained a search warrant on August 15, 2011 to copy and search the property seized. The warrant specified that it was to be executed on or before August 29, 2011. “Execution” of the search warrant required a forensic analyst to copy and search existing and deleted computer files. The investigator began analyzing the seized computers in November of 2011 and the external hard drives on January 24, 2012. The analyst located over 2,000 images of child pornography on the external hard drive. On April 25, 2012, a report was prepared documenting what was found on the computer media. A return of inventory was filed with the district court on November 15, 2013. The sergeant handling the case stated that he did not intend to prejudice Beckmann or delay the proceedings but merely forgot to return the warrant.

On July 24, 2013, the grand jury returned a one-count indictment against Beckmann for possession of child pornography. Beckmann filed a motion to suppress certain evidence and statements. The magistrate judge held two evidentiary hearings on Beckmann’s motion before issuing a report and recommendation. *677 Beckmann filed objections to the report and recommendation, and the district judge reviewed the issues de novo. The district judge sustained, adopted, and incorporated the magistrate’s report and recommendation with the exception of two factual findings. The district court granted Beckmann’s motion to suppress certain statements made by Beckmann but denied the motion as to other statements and the physical evidence.' Beckmann elected not to proceed to trial and instead entered a plea'of guilty, reserving his right to appeal the order on his motion to suppress.

Prior to sentencing, the parties submitted memoranda concerning the appropriate amount of restitution to be ordered. The government submitted victim impact statements from three of the victims of child pornography — Cindy, L.S., and Vicky. Beckmann possessed three images of Cindy, ten images of L.S., and fourteen videos and two images of Vicky. During sentencing, the government requested $3,000 of restitution per victim based on the mean amount of restitution ordered in the recent Supreme Court case of United States v. Paroline and citing two other district court opinions. The government further offered á computation of restitution based on the average number of former and expected claims per victim and the average amount of loss attributable to each defendant over a twenty year period. These calculations yielded the following restitution amounts: Cindy — $1,600, L.S. — $2,400, and Vicky — $675. Beck-mann argued that the government failed to make the causal link required by Paroline in order to justify such significant restitution. Even if it could, Beckmann argued, the range of $200-$300 would be more appropriate because Beckmann was a mere possessor.

The district court held that Beckmann’s mere possession of child pornography was a proximate cause of the victims’ losses because Beckmann contributed to “ongoing victimization” and “ongoing victimization causes ongoing harm.” The court further held that the government met its burden to show an appropriate amount of restitution based on the limited information available. The court noted that Paro-line

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
786 F.3d 672, 2015 WL 2330455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-paul-beckmann-ca8-2015.