Child Pornography Charges Penal Code Section 311.11 - New Case Ruling
As child pornography prosecutions have become more visible in Southern California courts, Los Angeles Criminal Lawyers should be aware of a recent decision in this area.
The Ninth Circuit concluded that the seizure of child pornography and other evidence of an elderly man’s involvement in sex tourism from a FedEx shipping facility was valid as the equivalent of a border search - which requires almost no government justification to be lawful. Defendant argued on appeal that the trial judge should have suppressed the contents of the packages he attempted to ship to the Philippines.The court affirmed Defendant’s conviction and 20-year prison sentence for attempting to travel in interstate commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct, using interstate facilities to entice a minor into engaging in criminal sexual activity, and possessing and producing child pornography.
Between 2002 and 2003, testimony showed that Defedant sent three FedEx packages to the Philippines. As required by the shipper, he signed a statement agreeing to conditions, including allowing FedEx to inspect the contents and an acknowledgment that the package had to “clear customs” before leaving the United States. U.S. Custom Service inspectors later inspected all packages bound for the Philippines through FedEx’s Oakland hub as part of a currency interdiction operation. Seljan’s package was found to contain U.S. and Philippine currency, as well as a sexually suggestive letter to an 8-year-old girl. A second package containing similar contents was intercepted eight months later. Inspectors allowed FedEx to deliver both packages. Interviews with one of Defendant’s former neighbors and a former property manager revealed that he traveled to the Philippines, and that he said he did so to “have sex with kids.” He was shown to have traveled to the Philippines 42 times between 1992 and 2003.
Defendant was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport while attempting to board a flight to the Philippines. After signing a Miranda waiver, he said he had been “sexually educating” children for approximately 20 years. After his arrest, a search warrant was executed at his residence, and pornography as well as business and travel documents were discovered.
Defendant argued in support of his suppression motion that the search did not fall under any exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement. The motion was denied by the trial judge, who held “that inspections at the airport facility were tantamount to an inspection at the international border.” The court relied on a prior case ruling, in which the high court held that border agents did not, under the Fourth Amendment, need reasonable suspicion to stop a vehicle and remove and disassemble its gas tank.
The Court reasoned: “We agree with the defense that there was intrusion into his privacy, but the degree of intrusion must be viewed in perspective. defendant voluntarily gave the package containing the letter to FedEx for delivery to someone in the Philippines, with knowledge that it would have to cross the border and clear customs,” the judge wrote. “The reasonable expectation of privacy for that package was necessarily tempered.”
Source: Law Blog