United States v. Roberto Cruz-Rivera

74 F.4th 503
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 20, 2023
Docket22-1325
StatusPublished

This text of 74 F.4th 503 (United States v. Roberto Cruz-Rivera) 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. Roberto Cruz-Rivera, 74 F.4th 503 (7th Cir. 2023).

Opinion

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 22-1325 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v.

ROBERTO CRUZ-RIVERA, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division. No. 1:21-cr-00160 — Tanya Walton Pratt, Chief Judge. ____________________

ARGUED MAY 17, 2023 — DECIDED JULY 20, 2023 ____________________

Before RIPPLE, SCUDDER, and LEE, Circuit Judges. RIPPLE, Circuit Judge. Roberto Cruz-Rivera was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a). The district court sentenced him to forty-one months’ imprisonment and five years of supervised release. Mr. Cruz-Rivera now challenges one aspect of his sentence. He submits that the district court erred in imposing a discre- tionary condition of supervised release that allows a proba- tion officer, with the assistance of law enforcement, to search 2 No. 22-1325

his person and property upon reasonable suspicion that he has violated a condition of supervised release or has commit- ted other unlawful conduct. We conclude that the district court did not err in imposing the challenged supervised release condition. We therefore af- firm the judgment of the district court. I A Mr. Cruz-Rivera was convicted of first-degree rape and first-degree assault in New York in 2001 after he violently at- tacked two women who suffered from a mild mental disabil- ity. He had stabbed both women and raped one woman. He was released from prison for those offenses in October 2015. Because of the rape conviction, he was required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Noti- fication Act (“SORNA”), 34 U.S.C. § 20901 et seq. Between September 2017 and March 2020, Mr. Cruz-Ri- vera lived and worked in Indiana. During this time, he was employed by a staffing agency and worked throughout Indi- anapolis, including at the Convention Center, Lucas Oil Sta- dium, the JW Marriott Hotel, Butler University, and an ele- mentary school. He also was convicted of two felonies—re- sisting law enforcement and auto theft—in Indianapolis dur- ing that time. Mr. Cruz-Rivera never registered as a sex offender in In- diana. B A grand jury indicted Mr. Cruz-Rivera on one count of failing to register as a sex offender, in violation of 18 U.S.C. No. 22-1325 3

§ 2250(a), between September 15, 2017, and March 14, 2020. Mr. Cruz-Rivera chose to proceed pro se in the district court. The district court conducted a bench trial and found him guilty. Before his sentencing hearing, the Probation Office pre- pared a Presentence Investigation Report (“PSR”) in which it recommended the following condition of supervised release: You shall submit to the search by the probation officer of your person, vehicle, office/business, residence, and property, including any com- puter systems and hardware or software sys- tems, electronic devices, telephones, and Inter- net-enabled devices, including the data con- tained in any such items, whenever the proba- tion officer has a reasonable suspicion that a vi- olation of a condition of supervision or other unlawful conduct may have occurred or be un- derway involving you and that the area(s) to be searched may contain evidence of such viola- tion or conduct. Other law enforcement may as- sist as necessary. You shall submit to the seizure of contraband found by the probation officer. You shall warn other occupants these locations 1 may be subject to searches.

1 R.284 ¶ 87(m). 4 No. 22-1325

The PSR explained that, “[d]ue to the nature of the instant of- fense and the defendant’s criminal history, this condition 2 [wa]s recommended to protect society.” Mr. Cruz-Rivera objected to this proposed condition of su- pervised release. He contended that the condition, which al- lows search and seizure “without a search warrant supported by probable cause,” violated his Fourth Amendment right “to 3 be free from unreasonable search and seizure.” He objected in particular to “[a] blanket justification for the search of elec- tronics, electronic communications, and their data,” noting that “[t]he instant offense did not involve[] the use of comput- ers, electronic devices, telephones, internet enabled devices, and their data, nor [wa]s the nature of the offense related to the use of computers, electronic devices, telephones, internet 4 enabled devices, and their data.” He stated that he did not “object to the search of his person if there is reasonable suspi- cion of evidence that could be obtained indicating a violation 5 of the conditions of supervised release.” The Probation Office, citing U.S.S.G. § 5D1.3(b), re- sponded as follows: Search and seizure is undoubtably important for public safety purposes in monitoring offend- ers following their release into the community. It is a condition of supervised release that is

2 Id.

3 R.235 at 1.

4 Id. at 2, 4.

5 Id. at 4. No. 22-1325 5

imposed on all monitored offenders. Searches are not conducted without probable cause and only after approval from the Deputy Chief 6 and/or Chief Probation Officer. At the sentencing hearing, the district court overruled Mr. Cruz-Rivera’s objection to the search condition. The court stated: You object to the condition of supervised release that concerns certain seizure of electronic de- vices, electronic communication, and all elec- tronic data without a search warrant supported by probable cause. Okay. And I’m going to overrule the objection, because when you’re on probation or supervised release, you’re under a different standard. And under the guidelines, Section 5D1.3(b), the Court may impose conditions of supervised release to the extent that such conditions are reasonably related to the nature and circum- stances of the offense and the history and char- acteristics of the defendant, the need for the sen- tence imposed to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct, the need to protect the public from further crimes, the need to provide the de- fendant with needed vocational, medical, cor- rectional treatment in the most effective man- ner.

6 R.284 at 25. 6 No. 22-1325

And it says that the conditions the Court im- pose should involve no greater deprivation of liberty than is reasonably necessary for the pur- poses set forth above and are consistent with any pertinent policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission. So the search and sei- zure of your computer devices is reasonable in this case because of the nature of your convic- tion for failing to register as a sex offender, and the searches that would not be conducted with- out probable cause. So they would—the Proba- tion Department would have to have probable cause to search your devices; okay? It will be a condition that you not have—I don’t know if we have the condition of child pornography or an- ything like that. Is that one of the conditions? (Off the record.) Okay. All right. So if there was some suspicion or probable cause that you were involved in some criminal activities, then they would be able to do a search; okay? But if there’s—they would have to have some sort of probable cause, some reason, some suspicion, some rea- sonable suspicion, in order to exercise any 7 searches on your devices.

7 Sentencing Tr. at 17:9–18:18. No. 22-1325 7

The court then accepted the PSR “for the record under seal with the changes and notifications that the Court requested to 8 be made to the report.” The court imposed a sentence of forty-one months’ impris- onment and five years of supervised release.

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Bluebook (online)
74 F.4th 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-roberto-cruz-rivera-ca7-2023.