United States v. Weatherman

702 F. App'x 452
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 7, 2017
DocketNo. 17-1354
StatusPublished

This text of 702 F. App'x 452 (United States v. Weatherman) 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. Weatherman, 702 F. App'x 452 (7th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

ORDER

Charles Weatherman entered a conditional guilty plea to one count of possessing child pornography, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), after authorities executing a search warrant at his home turned up child pornography on his electronic devices. On appeal Weatherman claims that the district court should have granted his motion to suppress, which argued that the affidavit supporting the search warrant was deficient because the investigator did not attach the images of child pornography he expected to find or include a description of those images. Whether or not the affidavit was deficient, however, we conclude that the search warrant was executed in good faith. On that basis we uphold the denial of Weatherman’s motion to suppress.

In March 2015, FBI special agent Tyrone Forte applied for a warrant to search Weatherman’s home on suspicion that Weatherman possessed child pornography. Agent Forte supported his application with an affidavit explaining that he had worked at the FBI for 24 years, the last 10 investigating violent crimes against children. After explaining his knowledge of the ways in which child pornography is produced, possessed, and traded over the Internet, Forte described the course of the FBI’s investigation into the production and distribution of child pornography by Jason Carpenski, a Maryland resident. That investigation had led investigators to Weatherman.

Agent Forte explained that Carpenski had been indicted on charges of producing, possessing, and distributing child pornography. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 2251(a), 2252(a)(2), 2252A(a)(5)(B). Carpenski had admitted taking an illicit photo of a minor and sharing it through email and a Craig-slist post. According to Forte, a search of Carpenski’s email account revealed he had sent “at least one image of child pornography” to several other accounts, including “mrscarrierobert@yahoo.com” and “kendrahammer94@yahoo.com.” One image in particular, titled “CAM00313,” was sent to both of those addresses. Someone using the “kendrahammer94@yahoo.com” address responded to Carpenski’s email with eight more images. Seven of those, Forte declared, were child pornography. And someone using the “mrscarrierobert@ yahoo.com” address sent Carpenski two images that Forte also characterized as child pornography.

Based on Yahoo! subscriber data, Agent Forte came to believe that Weatherman [454]*454was the man behind the two email accounts, “kendrahammer94@yahoo.com” and “mrscamerobert@yahoo.com,” These accounts had been opened within a month of each other and most recently had been accessed from the same Internet Protocol address. Forte traced that IP address to subscribers Virginia and Terry Weatherman at 703 Prairie Street in Altamont, Illinois. Public records showed that Terry Weatherman was deceased, though a Charles Weathermen also resided at the same address. Public records further linked Charles Weatherman to another address in Altamont, 201 Clover Street. The residence at that address was abandoned, but over the course of several days investigators saw a van registered to Charles Weatherman parked at 703 Prairie Street.

Agent Forte’s suspicions were heightened when he investigated Charles Weatherman’s Facebook profile. His Facebook page identifies as friends Kendralynn Hammer and Carrie Roberts—names corresponding with the email addresses that received images from Carpenski. The Fa-cebook accounts had been opened around the same time as the email accounts, and the Facebook page for Hammer includes a photo depicting Kenralynn Hammer as a young woman who, according to Forte, was possibly 17 years old. Neither page had much activity, Forte said, but the profiles listed one another—and Charles Weatherman—as friends. The page for Hammer was captioned “I’ll be your little naughty angel,” while the Roberts page was captioned “My Angel.” Agent Forte believed these accounts were fictitious and explained his understanding that persons have used phony Facebook accounts “to target and gain access to unsuspecting young boys and girls in order to begin the grooming process.” Forte further described his knowledge that “certain individuals use these fictitious accounts to find other adults with their same interests to either validate their own inappropriate actions toward juveniles or to begin to trade images, movies or recounted stories of sex with minors to satisfy their sexual desires.”

Weatherman’s Facebook page revealed connections with additional profiles that Agent Forte suspected were fictitious. These other profiles purported to represent young women with “sexually suggestive overtones such as bondage, incest, nudist communities and role playing.” Several of the accounts had been accessed from the same two or three IP addresses, meaning that, on multiple occasions, the same computer and wireless connection had been used to log in to each account.

Based on this information, a magistrate judge issued a search warrant for the residence at 703 Prairie Street. Federal agents executed that warrant and seized computers, thumbdrives, and other electronic devices. Forensic analysis uncovered child pornography, leading to Weatherman’s indictment for possessing child pornography, 18 U.S.O. 2252A(a)(5)(B).

Weatherman moved to suppress those images on the ground that the search warrant was not supported by probable cause because Agent Foi’te’s affidavit does not describe the suspected images of child pornography. Weatherman further argued that the agents who executed the warrant would have known that the supporting affidavit fails to demonstrate probable cause, and thus the government could not rely on the good-faith exception to defeat his motion to suppress.

The district court denied Weatherman’s motion. The court acknowledged that the magistrate judge was not entitled to rely on Agent Forte’s conclusory statements characterizing as “child pornography” the photos sent by Carpenski to the email addresses believed to be operated by [455]*455Weatherman. But, the court concluded, even without those conclusory statements, the affidavit establishes probable cause to believe that Weatherman possessed child pornography. The court pointed to the fact that Carpenski had been indicted for producing, possessing, and distributing child pornography and that Carpenski had sent images to email accounts traced to Weatherman. Not only had a grand jury determined that Carpenski produced child pornography, but Carpenski himself had admitted taking a pornographic image of a minor and sending it to others by email. The court further noted the pattern of suspicious Facebook and email personas likely created by Weatherman, which, in Forte’s training and experience, indicated an interest in the sexual activity of children. Thus concluding that the affidavit supports a finding of probable cause, the district court declined to address whether the agents who executed the warrant had acted in good-faith reliance on the issuing judge’s determination.

Weatherman entered a conditional guilty plea, reserving his right to challenge the suppression ruling on appeal. He was sentenced to 120 months’ imprisonment and 5 years’ supervised release.

On appeal Weatherman renews his contention that the search-warrant affidavit does not establish probable cause.

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

Related

Illinois v. Gates
462 U.S. 213 (Supreme Court, 1983)
United States v. Leon
468 U.S. 897 (Supreme Court, 1984)
United States v. Clark
668 F.3d 934 (Seventh Circuit, 2012)
United States v. Robert Mykytiuk
402 F.3d 773 (Seventh Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Paul Pavulak
700 F.3d 651 (Third Circuit, 2012)
United States v. Lowe
516 F.3d 580 (Seventh Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Woolsey
535 F.3d 540 (Seventh Circuit, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
702 F. App'x 452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-weatherman-ca7-2017.