United States v. Poulin

745 F.3d 796, 2014 WL 866399, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 4223
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 6, 2014
DocketNo. 13-1592
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 745 F.3d 796 (United States v. Poulin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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. Poulin, 745 F.3d 796, 2014 WL 866399, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 4223 (7th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

DURKIN, District Judge.

Law enforcement officers used file-sharing software to discover Matthew Poulin had been downloading and transmitting child pornography in the basement of his mother’s house. As a result, Poulin was charged with receipt of child pornography, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2)(A), (b)(1); and possession of child pornography, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), (b)(2). He later pled guilty to both charges and received a 115-month prison term, followed by a lifetime term of supervised released with various conditions attached. Poulin now challenges the length of his prison term and the accompanying supervised release, as well as certain conditions of the supervised release term. For the reasons that follow, we vacate Poulin’s sentence and remand for resentencing.

BACKGROUND

Poulin was born and raised in California, where he predominantly lived with his grandparents. In 2003 at age eighteen, Poulin married a woman who he would later divorce in 2006. It was around that time when Poulin fathered a son with another woman — a son he later obtained primary custody of after moving to Moline, Illinois, in June 2011.

In August 2011, Poulin and his son moved into Poulin’s mother’s house. Pou-lin’s mother, stepfather, and step-siblings [798]*798(ages 5 and 6) also resided in the house. Poulin had a bedroom in the basement, where he kept a computer and looked at adult pornography on a daily basis. At some point, Poulin became interested in child pornography, and he used file-sharing software to search and download at least 30 videos of child pornography.

In September 2011, law enforcement officers remotely accessed Poulin’s computer files through file-sharing software. They discovered that Poulin was offering to distribute certain child-pornography videos. In response, the officers obtained and executed a valid search warrant of Poulin’s residence. Poulin’s computer, two hard drives, and a television were seized. A forensic examination of the items revealed the illicit videos.

A grand jury returned a two-count indictment in December 2011, charging Pou-lin with receipt of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2)(A), (b)(1) (“Count One”), and possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), (b)(2) (“Count Two”). Dr. Ron Nieberding, a licensed clinical psychologist, was asked to evaluate Pou-lin’s competency to stand trial. Dr. Nie-berding in turn filed two reports with the court — the first addressed Poulin’s trial competency; the second, Poulin’s mental state at the time of the offense. The reports provided a thorough analysis of Poulin’s personal history and of his lengthy medical and psychiatric history.

The district court, taking the reports into consideration, found Poulin competent to stand trial. Poulin subsequently pled guilty to both counts without a plea agreement.

The case proceeded to sentencing. The probation office prepared a Presentence Investigation Report (“PSR”), which gave Poulin a total offense level of 34 with a criminal history category of I (because Poulin had no prior criminal history), resulting in an advisory guidelines range of 151 to 188 months’ imprisonment. The statutory supervised release range was 5 years to life, though the guidelines recommend the maximum term be imposed when the conviction is for a sex offense. See U.S.S.G. § 5D1.2(b)(2). The probation office also recommended as conditions of supervised release that Poulin undergo mandatory drug testing and register as a sex offender wherever he resides. The probation office later supplemented the PSR and recommended nine additional conditions. Poulin objected to three of them: (1) a ban on possessing material depicting or alluding to sexual activity or depicting sexual arousing material; (2) a ban on accessing sexually-oriented websites; and (3) a ban on contact with minors, including “incidental contact with minors and contact with minor family members for no apparent reason.”

The district court held a sentencing hearing on January 24, 2013. The judge adopted the guidelines calculation contained in the PSR but continued the sentencing in light of the impending decision in United States v. Goodwin, 717 F.3d 511 (7th Cir.2013), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 134 S.Ct. 334, 187 L.Ed.2d 234 (2013); which involved an appeal from a district court’s imposition of certain conditions on a sex offender during his supervised release.

A second hearing was held on March 15, 2013, despite the fact Goodwin had not yet been decided.1 The hearing predominantly focused on the conditions of supervised release. One central issue involved the phrase “sexually oriented websites,” which the district judge noted was vague. [799]*799Instead, the judge suggested that “pornographic” websites would be more appropriate and, in doing so, stated that he believed all pornography is illegal, including adult pornography. Defense counsel directed the judge to Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 36, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973), which held that only obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment, but the judge’s response implied that Miller defined what constitutes pornography, rather than obscenity. The parties also discussed the ban on contact with minors — a focal point of the Goodwin case, see Goodwin, 717 F.3d at 523-24 (vacating a condition of supervised release prohibiting the defendant from having contact with minors because the district court did not adequately explain why the condition was necessary). Poulin argued that the condition was inapplicable to him because his conduct did not involve contact with minors and the condition prevented him from having unsupervised physical contact with his son. The judge nevertheless rejected Poulin’s argument on that point, in addition to Poulin’s other challenges to the supervised release conditions.

The parties then discussed Poulin’s prison term. The government recommended a within-guidelines range sentence because the offenses were committed in a home where three small children resided, even though there was no evidence that Poulin had ever abused any children. The government also discussed Poulin’s statement at the time of his arrest that it was a “bullsh*t crime” and that he was “not hurting anyone.” Conversely, Poulin’s counsel asked for a 5-year prison term (the statutory minimum) because Poulin was 27 at the time of sentencing, had a strong relationship with his son, had never before been in trouble with the law, and had never laid his hands on a minor. Pou-lin’s counsel also explained that there is no correlation between possession of child pornography and contact sex offenses and that a 2010 Sentencing Commission survey demonstrated the majority of federal judges, roughly 70%, find the child pornography guidelines in a case like this to be extreme and unwarranted.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
745 F.3d 796, 2014 WL 866399, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 4223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-poulin-ca7-2014.