United States v. Caesar

2 F.4th 160

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant

v.Robert Dean CAESAR

No. 19-3961

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued February 11, 2021

Filed June 23, 2021

William M. McSwain, Seth M. Schlessinger, Jennifer A. Williams (Argued), Robert A. Zauzmer, Office of United States Attorney, 615 Chestnut Street, Suite 1250, Philadelphia, PA 19106, Counsel for Appellant

Stephen P. Patrizio, Two Penn Center Plaza, 1500 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1205, Philadelphia, PA 19102, David E. Robbins (Argued), 8 Erika Lane, Broomall, PA 19008, Counsel for Appellee

Before: CHAGARES, SCIRICA, and RENDELL, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

RENDELL, Circuit Judge.

Facing federal child pornography charges, defendant-appellee Robert Caesar moved to suppress evidence seized pursuant to search warrants executed by the Pennsylvania State Police. The District Court granted the motion in part, suppressing thousands of images of child pornography and photographs of Caesar's sexual abuse victims. The Government now appeals.

The initial warrant application contained information that Caesar had sexually abused two children in his home and, on multiple occasions, took to the Internet seeking out used children's undergarments and photos and videos of partially clothed children. Although the supporting affidavit included no express allegations that Caesar possessed child pornography, it stated that child abusers "routinely keep" such images. App. 49. The magistrate judge issued a warrant authorizing officers to search Caesar's home for child pornography and other sexually explicit images of minors, among other things, and several items of electronic equipment, later found to contain child pornography, were seized. Charged under federal law with producing, receiving, and possessing child pornography, Caesar moved to suppress the images. The District Court excluded the images, determining that the statements linking child molestation with child pornography failed to establish probable cause. It further concluded that the affidavit was so deficient that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule did not apply. Because we conclude that the officers relied on the initial warrant in good faith, we will reverse that part of the District Court order suppressing the images and remand for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

The evidence at issue was gathered by State Police officers pursuant to three search warrants while investigating Caesar for various sexual offenses involving minors. Because our Fourth Amendment inquiry turns on the sufficiency of the affidavits of probable cause presented to the issuing magistrate, the facts are largely drawn from those affidavits. See United States v. Zimmerman , 277 F.3d 426, 430 n.3 (3d Cir. 2002).

A. The Initial Tip and Caesar's eBay Activity

In July 2017, the State Police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ("NCMEC") about suspicious online activity by an eBay user. Officers investigated the tip and discovered several outgoing messages from the user's account, horses357, seeking to buy children's used underwear and swimsuits. In one message, the user asked for a photo of the inside of the clothing item and for information about the age and weight of the child who previously wore it. In another message, the user, posing as a parent buying swimwear for his son, asked, "who wore this and at what age?" App. 49. In a third message, the user posed as a child looking for photos or videos of other children in their undergarments:

Hi, [i]t's JJ again. I won these, yeah! But I spent more than dad said I could. He might not be to [sic] happy. Can your son David do another video in these or the white ones before you send them? Or some pics please? I didn't win the black and blue ones my brother wanted. Someone out bid [sic] me ... after the sale was over. Can you ask your son if he would like to exchange email addresses please? ... Ok, thanks again. JJ.

App. 50.

The State Police learned that horses357 was registered to "Robert Caesar ... of 906 Street Rd., Oxford, PA." App. 49. Several other pieces of information corroborated Caesar's connection to the eBay account. The account listed Caesar's work email address and phone number, and the Internet Protocol ("IP") address associated with the account was tied to a home address in Oxford. Driver's license records also showed that Caesar's home address was 906 Street Road. State Police Trooper Stefano Gallina interviewed the owner of the residence, who stated that Caesar had rented the house for four years. The landlord also told Gallina that Caesar had never been married and had no children.

B. Subsequent Investigation into Sexual Abuse of the Two Brothers

While the initial investigation was ongoing, in January 2018 Gallina received a referral from Children and Youth Services alleging that Caesar had sexually abused two adolescent brothers. On January 17, 2018, Gallina interviewed the brothers—ages sixteen and fourteen—and their mother, separately. The older brother told Gallina that, a few years prior, Caesar began paying the boys to do occasional chores around his house. "[S]ome time" later, Caesar started supplying him (then fourteen years old) and his brother (then twelve years old) with alcohol. App. 50. Around June 2015, Caesar began sexually abusing the boys. Caesar would provide the older brother alcohol and then take him to Caesar's bedroom, where Caesar performed oral sex on him and forced the boy to masturbate him. The sexual abuse took place "several times" and "always" occurred in Caesar's bed. App. 50. On multiple occasions, Caesar asked the older brother to engage in other sexual acts with him, but the boy refused. The boy agreed, however, to let Caesar keep a few articles of his underwear.

The younger brother advanced similar allegations in his interview with Gallina. He also stated that Caesar supplied him with alcohol and brought him to the bedroom, where Caesar sexually abused him. Both boys claimed that the sexual conduct continued until late December 2017, at which point their parents prohibited them from returning to Caesar's house. In her interview with Gallina, the boys’ mother stated only that the younger brother returned home from Caesar's house one evening in late December 2017 smelling like alcohol. She did not share any information about the alleged sexual abuse.

The day after these interviews, Gallina applied for two warrants to search for evidence of aggravated indecent assault of a minor, in violation of 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3125(a)(8). The warrant applications sought authority for the following:

• In the first warrant, a search of Caesar's home for two categories of evidence: (1) physical evidence of the alleged sexual abuse, consisting of "[s]emen and bodily fluid belonging to the victims, children's underwear and swimwear," and (2) "images of child pornography, child erotica or nudity and/or any images of the victims in any form (hard copy photographs, VHS tapes, DVD's, CD's, or stored on personal electronic devices)." App. 47. This second category of evidence is at issue on appeal.

• In the second warrant, a collection of a sample of Caesar's DNA.

The affidavits of probable cause supporting the first and second warrants each consisted of four single-spaced pages that set forth a detailed description of Caesar's eBay messages and the sexual abuse allegations against him.

In addition, the affidavits provided an extensive accounting of Gallina's experience and training as a State Police trooper and ex-Federal Air Marshal. At the time of the investigation, Gallina had been a trooper for approximately six years and "ha[d] investigated several thousand criminal incidents." App. 48. Many of these criminal investigations "included the search and investigation of electronic communication devices, electronic records and data." App. 48. He had also taken courses on general investigation techniques, investigation methods for drug crimes and violent crimes, and criminal behavior assessment, among other subjects. None of Gallina's training addressed sex crimes specifically.

Based on his training and experience, Gallina made several statements about the tendency of child abusers to possess child pornography and other sexually explicit images. He alleged that he

kn[ew] that those involved in the sexual abuse of children and juveniles routinely keep and maintain ... [digital or physical copies of] photographs of nude children and of children posed in various states of undress ... [and] videos of nude children and of children posed in various states of undress performing sexual acts ....

App. 49. At other points in the affidavit, Gallina repeated similar allegations that child abusers "routinely and commonly store, share, and maintain" sexually explicit images and videos of children. App. 51. He also averred that individuals who sexually abuse children often browse the internet for child pornography and used articles of children's clothing on websites such as Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace.

A Chester County magistrate judge issued the two warrants and the State Police searched Caesar's home the same day. During the search, officers seized stained bedsheets, pillowcases, and articles of stained children's underwear. They also discovered several pieces of electronic equipment, including a cell phone, digital camera, various VHS cassettes and compact discs, two computers, and multiple external hard drives. One of the hard drives was found wedged between the mattress and box spring in Caesar's bedroom. The officers did not search the devices immediately upon seizing them.

Later that day, following the search, Gallina arrested Caesar and brought him to the police station for questioning. After Gallina read Caesar his Miranda¹ rights, Caesar agreed to be interviewed. The interview proceeded for about an hour until Caesar told Gallina that he did not want to answer more questions. Notwithstanding Caesar's multiple...