United States v. Seljan

547 F.3d 993, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 22056, 2008 WL 4661700
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided October 23, 2008·No. 05-50236·Published·Cited by 38 cases

Opinions

[996] CLIFTON, Circuit Judge:

John Seljan appeals his conviction and sentence for multiple offenses primarily involving sexual misconduct with young children in the Philippines. Federal agents investigated Seljan after customs inspectors, conducting routine searches at a FedEx facility for unreported currency and other monetary instruments in packages being sent to foreign destinations, discovered sexually suggestive letters in packages sent by Seljan. Seljan appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress all evidence resulting from those searches, primarily contending that the Fourth Amendment prohibited the inspectors from examining personal correspondence without a warrant, or from doing so after they should have realized that the document being examined was not a monetary instrument. Seljan also challenges his sentence. We affirm.

I. Facts and Procedural History

Seljan sent packages from Southern California to the Philippines via FedEx on at least three separate dates: November 20, 2002, August 2, 2003, and September 26, 2003.1 Seljan understood that the packages had to “clear customs” before leaving the United States. Affixed to each package was an international air waybill completed and signed by Seljan. A portion of the form labeled “Required Signature” stated, “Use of this Air Waybill constitutes your agreement to the Conditions of Contract on the back of this Air Waybill.” These conditions included the following provision: “Right to Inspect. Your shipment may, at our option or at the request of governmental authorities, be opened and inspected by us or such authorities at any time.”

FedEx routes international packages sent from Southern California through the company’s regional hub in Oakland, California, one of four FedEx regional sorting facilities in the United States. At that facility, FedEx sorts packages by destination and places all document-sized packages bound for a particular country into locked containers. If a package is inspected by U.S. Customs,2 its agents do the inspection prior to the placement of the packages into the container. Once loaded into a container, a package is not removed until it arrives in the destination country, in this case the Philippines.

When Seljan’s first package passed through the FedEx facility in Oakland on November 21, 2002, customs inspectors were searching packages bound for the Philippines as part of an outbound currency interdiction operation. The operation was aimed at detecting violations of 31 U.S.C. § 5316, which prohibits export or import of undeclared currency or other monetary instruments worth more than $10,000. As will be discussed in more detail below, customs inspectors are authorized under 31 U.S.C. § 5317(b) to open and inspect packages at the border to enforce that statute.

The FedEx package sent by Seljan was opened and examined as part of that operation. It was found to contain two envelopes and return address labels for Seljan’s post office box. The first envelope contained a $100 bill in U.S. currency and a pamphlet for a hotel in Bangkok. The [997] second contained a 500 peso note in Philippine currency and a short letter. That letter was typed on one side of a single sheet of paper, at the top of which was a cartoon figure. The letter contained sexually suggestive language and appeared to be addressed to an eight-year-old girl.3 Customs officials photocopied the package’s contents before returning it to FedEx for delivery.

The second package sent by Seljan was intercepted by customs inspectors at the Oakland facility on August 3, 2003, during another outbound currency operation. This package contained approximately $200 in U.S. currency, several pages of adult pornography, and two letters. One letter appeared to be addressed to the same eight-year-old girl. It was more sexually explicit than the November 2002 letter, as it expressed Seljan’s desire to engage in sex acts with the girl. The other letter was addressed to another girl’s mother and stated that Seljan would be “coming back in September .... know [redactedj’s b-Day is September 21th she’ll be XXXX 9.” [errors in original] After opening the package and seeing the pornography and letters, the customs agent alerted his supervisor, who recognized Sel-jan’s name from the November 2002 search. Again, the inspectors copied the contents and allowed FedEx to deliver the package.

An agent of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement began to investigate Seljan. The property manager for Seljan’s former residence and one of Sel-jan’s former neighbors both told the agent that Seljan spoke of traveling to the Philippines to “have sex with kids,” that he showed child pornography, and that he had bragged about his video and scrapbook collection of similar materials. The agent determined that Seljan had traveled to the Philippines forty-three times between 1992 and 2003.

Customs inspectors at the Oakland facility stopped and searched Seljan’s third FedEx package on September 27, 2003. This package contained nine photocopied letters, $100 in U.S. currency, non-pornographic photos of Seljan with minors, and adult pornography. The letters described Seljan’s desire to engage in sex acts with the children to whom the letters were addressed. One letter was addressed to the recipient of the November 2002 letter. The inspectors copied the contents but, this time, withheld the package from delivery.

[998] Seljan arrived at Los Angeles International Airport and checked baggage for a flight to Manila on October 3, 2003. Customs agents stopped him before he boarded the plane. The agents searched his luggage, discovering adult pornographic magazines, a book of child pornography, letters written by Seljan, and fifty-two photographs of Seljan engaged in sex acts with Filipino children.

Seljan signed a Miranda waiver and made several incriminating statements. He said he had been “sexually educating” children for about twenty years, that the children’s ages ranged from eight to thirteen, and that he intended to “sexually educate” children on the trip he was there that day to take. He was not allowed to depart on that trip, however, and was placed under arrest. After his arrest, customs agents executed a search warrant at his residence and discovered adult pornography, a fiction book about pedophilia and incest, a typewriter, and various business and travel documents.

Seljan subsequently filed a motion to suppress all evidence discovered as a result of the searches of his FedEx packages. He argued that the warrantless search of these packages did not fall under any exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. At a minimum, he asserted, these were “extended border searches” that must be supported by reasonable suspicion. Seljan also contended that the scope of the package searches was unreasonable.

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

United States v. Seljan, 547 F.3d 993, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 22056, 2008 WL 4661700 (9th Cir. 2008).

547 F.3d 993 (United States v. Seljan) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

United States v. Miguel Cano
934 F.3d 1002 (Ninth Circuit, 2019)
United States v. Calvin Bernhardt
903 F.3d 818 (Eighth Circuit, 2018)
United States v. Jesus Barragan
871 F.3d 689 (Ninth Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Mendez
240 F. Supp. 3d 1005 (D. Arizona, 2017)
United States v. Evans
75 M.J. 302 (Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, 2016)
United States v. Caballero
178 F. Supp. 3d 1008 (S.D. California, 2016)
United States v. Levy
Second Circuit, 2015
United States v. Costoso
56 F. Supp. 3d 104 (D. Puerto Rico, 2014)
United States v. Saboonchi
990 F. Supp. 2d 536 (D. Maryland, 2014)
United States v. Donald Tosti
733 F.3d 816 (Ninth Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Juan Garcia-Rivas
520 F. App'x 507 (Ninth Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Howard Cotterman
709 F.3d 952 (Ninth Circuit, 2013)
Gennusa v. Shoar
879 F. Supp. 2d 1337 (M.D. Florida, 2012)
United States v. McCarty
648 F.3d 820 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Cotterman
637 F.3d 1068 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. William Irey
Eleventh Circuit, 2010