Search and Seizure — probable cause

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Search and Seizure — probable cause

Evidence that the defendant sexually assaulted his niece created probable cause to search his computer for child pornography.

“In his affidavit, Vucich did not provide an example of Michele Clark downloading child pornography; however, he did not need to do so in order to establish Clark’s sexual interest in children and connect him to the ‘collector’ profile. Vucich’s state-law affidavit extensively described Clark’s sexual assault on his four-year- old niece. It further detailed his sexual advances on a nine-year-old boy and another six-year-old girl. In short, the affidavit documents Michele Clark’s particular, sexual attraction to children and his willingness to act on his proclivities. The affidavit thus places him at the heart of the boilerplate language to which he objects: as an individual associated with sex offenses involving minors, he likely ‘collect[ed] and/or view[ed] images on the computer.’ See supra Part I.A.2.”

“Moreover, Vucich’s affidavit provided evidence that Clark used a computer—a probable repository for child pornography—as part of his advances. These details, too, provided probable cause to connect Clark to the ‘collector’ profile and to conduct an appurtenant search. Specifically, Clark watched pornography on his computer while concurrently asking a six-year-old girl to take her clothes off. Facially, the affidavit provides probable cause to search.

Affirmed.

11-3134 U.S. v. Clark

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Murphy, J., Flaum, J.