Opinion ID: 622724
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: The FBI Investigation in 2008

Text: Clark further argues that the information regarding the FBI's investigation into child pornography distribution at 3952 Torch Club Road must be excluded as speculative because Vucich never specifically described the seventeen images that prompted that investigation. Without doing so, he asserts, the issuing court could not rely upon the fact that those images were child pornography when assessing probable cause. We agree that, to the extent it factored into the issuing judge and district court's evaluation of probable cause, the FBI investigation was improperly included. Vucich cites the fact of a previous FBI investigation as circumstantial evidence that Clark fits the collector profile: the FBI suspected someone at 3952 Torch Club Road of distributing child pornography over LimeWire in October 2008; Michele Clark resided at that address during that time period; and, coupled with the other evidence in the affidavit, there presently exists reason to suspect that Clark (1) was responsible for the child pornography distribution at the time; and (2) continues to collect such images. While circumstantial evidence may be included in an affidavit to support probable cause, see, e.g., United States v. Curry, 538 F.3d 718, 730 (7th Cir.2008) (approving in an affidavit the inclusion of circumstantial evidence that the defendant perpetrated the crime under investigation), the fact of an FBI investigation alone is probative of nothing. To prove relevant to the search at issue, the FBI investigation must have uncovered child pornography or the use of LimeWire to distribute child pornography, an outcome which cannot be assumed and which requires either submission of the images themselves or a detailed description of them. See United States v. Lowe, 516 F.3d 580, 586 (7th Cir.2008) (explaining that probable cause to search for child pornography may, in lieu of the actual images, be based on a detailed verbal description of them, but implying that one or the other is required). Absent the pictures or a detailed description, the FBI investigation could not properly factor into the issuing judge or district court's probable cause assessment. Nevertheless, we hold that without the details of the FBI investigation, the evidence that Clark sexually assaulted his niece, sexually advanced upon two other children, and employed a computer in at least one of his inappropriate advances constitutes sufficiently particularized facts to characterized him as a member of the collector class. Accordingly, Vucich appropriately included in his affidavit the boilerplate language on this class of individuals, and the issuing judge and district court were permitted to consider that correlative information when evaluating the probable cause to conduct a search for the possession of child pornography. In light of the totality of the circumstances, we hold that probable cause to search for child pornography existed.