Opinion ID: 821120
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Multiplicity Challenge to Possession Counts

Text: The indictment charges Woerner, in Counts One and Two, with “knowingly possess[ing] material that contained images of child pornography,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). The allowable unit of prosecution for § 2252A(a)(5)(B) is each “material,” or medium, containing an image of child pornography. Planck, 493 F.3d at 504. To charge multiple possession counts, the government must have evidence that a defendant (1) “has images stored in separate materials,” and (2) “the prohibited images were obtained through the result of different transactions.” Id. Woerner argues that the two possession counts are predicated on the same conduct. The government’s response—that Counts One and Two are not multiplicitous because Woerner possessed child pornography on different days—overlooks that the pertinent unit of prosecution is each material, not each day. See id.; see also United States v. Ehle, 640 F.3d 689, 697 (6th Cir. 2011) (“Carried to its logical extreme, the idea would permit possession of contraband for ten days (240 hours) to be charged as ten (or maybe 240) separate counts of 17 Case: 11-41380 Document: 00512152043 Page: 18 Date Filed: 02/22/2013 No. 11-41380 possession. The policy underlying the Double Jeopardy Clause clearly does not permit such parsing.”). Under the governing standard, whether Counts One and Two are multiplicitous hinges upon whether the evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to support the jury’s verdict that (1) Woerner possessed two or more separate materials, and (2) the images contained therein were obtained through different transactions. The latter is straightforward. The jury was entitled to infer from the large number of images and videos downloaded from Woerner’s Gigatribe shared folder on April 14 and May 14, 2010, and emailed from Woerner’s fantastikaktion account between January 10 and July 2, 2010, that the images in his possession were obtained through different transactions. Planck, 493 F.3d at 506 (Wiener, J., concurring) (“Given the overwhelming number of images and movies stored on the computers and diskettes in Planck’s house, it would exceed credulity to conclude that Planck acquired, or could have acquired, all the images and movies at the very same time.”); United States v. Hinkeldey, 626 F.3d 1010, 1014 (10th Cir. 2010). Slightly more difficult is the question whether the evidence supports the jury’s verdict that Woerner possessed two “materials” containing child pornography. We have interpreted the term “material,” which is not defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), to denote a medium containing images of child pornography. See Planck, 493 F.3d at 503. This child pornography prosecution is different than most because the physical media purportedly containing child pornography—the computer and the flash drive—were never entered into evidence. The computer was suppressed as a fruit of the unlawful July 12 search, and the flash drive, which was seized during the lawful July 30 search, has not been shown by the parties to have been entered into evidence. However, even though the government did not enter into evidence Woerner’s home computer, the jury had ample evidence from which to infer that 18 Case: 11-41380 Document: 00512152043 Page: 19 Date Filed: 02/22/2013 No. 11-41380 the computer was a “material that contained images of child pornography” that Woerner knowingly possessed. It is reasonable to infer from the extensive collection of child pornography found on Woerner’s fantastikaktion and Gigatribe accounts that he stored at least some of his files on his home computer: witnesses testified he possessed and used this computer, and the IP address linked to the fantastikaktion and Gigatribe accounts was registered to the Ash street property where this computer was located and where Woerner alone resided. Similarly, while the government apparently did not enter into evidence the flash drive, the jury could have reasonably inferred that it was a “material that contained images of child pornography” that Woerner knowingly possessed, in light of J.L.’s testimony that Woerner possessed it and it contained child pornography, Woerner’s admission that bringing it to flight school might get them both in trouble, and the considerable evidence that Woerner knowingly possessed and distributed child pornography on a large scale. Having found that the evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to support the jury’s verdict that Woerner possessed two or more separate materials and the images contained therein were obtained through separate transactions, we conclude that Counts One and Two are not multiplicitous. B. Multiplicity Challenge to Distribution Counts The indictment charges Woerner, in Counts Three, Four, and Five, with “knowingly distribut[ing] any visual depiction . . . involv[ing] the use of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2). The unit of prosecution for § 2252(a)(2) is each transaction in which one or more depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct are distributed. See United States v. Pires, 642 F.3d 1, 16 (1st Cir. 2011); United States v. Polouizzi, 564 F.3d 142, 158 (2d Cir. 2009); see also Reedy, 304 F.3d at 365–68 (holding that a person cannot be charged more than once for images received or distributed in the same transaction). 19 Case: 11-41380 Document: 00512152043 Page: 20 Date Filed: 02/22/2013 No. 11-41380 Under that standard, Counts Three, Four, and Five are not multiplicitous because they involve three separate transactions in which multiple visual depictions were distributed: (1) the April 14, 2010 transaction in which Detective Uhlir downloaded approximately 11 videos and images from Woerner’s shared folder on Gigatribe, (2) the May 14, 2010 transaction in which Special Agent Couch downloaded 8 videos and 170 images from the same account, and (3) the 65 emails sent between January 10 and July 2, 2010 from Woerner’s fantastikaktion account containing, in total, more than 90 videos and 1300 images of child pornography. See Pires, 642 F.3d at 16; Polouizzi, 564 F.3d at 158.