Opinion ID: 2982760
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: factual and procedural backgroud

Text: In March 2009, when Ziska was a senior in high school, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at the home where he lived with his parents. Before obtaining the warrant, FBI agents had used GigaTribe peer-to-peer software to download several dozen images depicting child pornography from Ziska’s computer, and an undercover FBI agent became Ziska’s GigaTribe friend and chatted with him online. Ziska revealed to the agent that he was an 18-year-old high school student and that he had been using GigaTribe for two years. Upon the execution of the warrant, Ziska initially denied all involvement with child pornography, but after his parents urged him to be honest, he admitted that he had been downloading child pornography since 1999, when he was nine years old. The FBI’s search of his computer located 3,384 images and 185 videos depicting child pornography, including images of sex acts between adults and minors under twelve years old, and several images of minors who had been tied up. Ziska was diagnosed with ADHD when he was in grade school, and was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome near the time of his arrest. As a child Ziska had poor social skills, could not interact with children his age, and had difficulty following rules. By high school Ziska had developed an interest in robotics, computer technology, and electronics, and performed well in this field. In a written statement accepting responsibility for his actions, Ziska indicated that when he first discovered the material at the age of nine, he thought it must be legal because it was online. He claims that by the time he realized child pornography was wrong, he had become addicted to it. -2- No. 14-3147 United States of America v. Patrick Ziska In March 2012, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department executed another search warrant at Ziska’s address, and recovered an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 files that could be child pornography. Several weeks later, Ziska was indicted in federal court based on the evidence obtained through the FBI’s 2009 warrant. Ziska’s federal indictment charged him with distributing visual depictions of a minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2), and with possessing child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). He pled guilty to both counts without a plea agreement. Ziska’s final Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) was filed in January 2014. It included a base offense level of 22 under USSG §2G2.2(a)(2); a two-level increase under §2G2.2(b)(2) for material involving a prepubescent minor younger than 12 years old; a five-level increase under §2G2.2(b)(3)(B) for distributing child pornography with the expectation of “receipt of a thing of value, but not for pecuniary gain”; a four-level increase under §2G2.2(b)(4) for material portraying sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence; a twolevel increase under §2G2(b)(6) because the offense involved the use of a computer; and a fivelevel increase under §2G2.(b)(7)(D) because the offense involved more than 600 images. Based on Ziska’s acceptance of responsibility and assistance to the government, the PSR subtracted three levels from this adjusted offense level of 40, leaving Ziska with a total offense level of 37, 15 levels above the crime’s base offense level. At the time the PSR was prepared, Ziska had pled guilty to state court charges brought against him based on the evidence obtained in the March 2012 search of his home, but had yet to be sentenced for that crime. He was therefore given one criminal history point under USSG §4A1.1(c), which put him in Criminal History Category I, the lowest level. USSG Ch.5, Pt.A (Sentencing Table). An offense level 37 -3- No. 14-3147 United States of America v. Patrick Ziska combined with Criminal History Category I yields a Guidelines sentencing range of 210-264 months. Id. Ziska objected to the offense level calculated in his PSR, arguing that two enhancements were improper—the five-level increase for distribution with the expectation of receipt of a thing of value, and the two-level increase for using a computer in the commission of the offense. He maintains that his total offense level should be 30, which has a corresponding guideline range of 97-121 months. Before sentencing, Ziska filed a sentencing memorandum and attachments under seal arguing his position, and his counsel raised both arguments during the sentencing hearing. The probation officer supported the five-level increase by including in the PSR the online chat between Ziska and an FBI agent in which Ziska indicated that he blocked users’ access to his shared folders when they had nothing to share. The probation officer also noted Ziska’s objection to the enhancement for computer use, but declined to change the report, saying she believed the level 37 result was in accord with the intentions of the Sentencing Commission. In February 2014, the district court sentenced Ziska to a 180-month term of imprisonment on Count 1 and a concurrent 120-month term of imprisonment on Count 2, followed by a tenyear term of supervised release with several conditions, including a restriction on Ziska’s ownership or possession of camera equipment without the written approval of his probation officer. At sentencing, Ziska’s counsel renewed his objections to the two sentencing enhancements and stressed that a downward variance based on Ziska’s Asperger’s diagnosis would be appropriate, but did not object to the restrictions placed on his ownership and possession of photographic equipment during the supervised release period. Final judgment was entered and this timely appeal followed. -4- No. 14-3147 United States of America v. Patrick Ziska