Opinion ID: 3152369
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: Mark Besola and Jeffrey Swenson lived together in Besola's house. After a friend of Swenson's, Kellie Westfall, was arrested, she told police that she had seen drugs and child pornography at Besola' s house. Besola was a veterinarian, and 2 State v. Besola/State v. Swenson No. 90554-1 Westfall said that he provided prescription drugs from his veterinary clinic to Swenson, who was a drug addict. Based on the information provided by Westfall, a judge issued a search warrant for illegal drugs but declined to issue a search warrant related to child pornography at that time. At the scene, police saw CDs (compact disks) and DVDs (digital video disks) with handwritten titles that implied that they contained child pornography. On the basis of this observation, police requested and obtained an addendum to the search warrant. The language of that amended warrant (and whether it was sufficiently particular) is at the heart of the legal issue in this case. The warrant indicated that the crime under investigation was Possession of Child Pornography R.C.W. 9.68A.070. Clerk's Papers (CP) at 312 (boldface omitted). The warrant indicated that the following evidence is material to the investigation or prosecution of the above described felony: 1. Any and all video tapes, CDs, DVDs, or any other visual and or audio recordings; 2. Any and all printed pornographic materials; 3. Any photographs, but particularly of minors; 4. Any and all computer hard drives or laptop computers and any memory storage devices; 5. Any and all documents demonstrating purchase, sale or transfer of pornographic material. Id. (boldface omitted). Police seized a number of computers, memory storage devices, CDs, and DVDs. They ultimately found child pornography on one computer 3 State v. Besola/State v. Swenson No. 90554-1 and on 41 disks with handwritten titles. They also found a DVD duplicating device (also known as a DVD burner) attached to the computer. Some disks contained duplicated copies of the child pornography. A handwriting expert testified that Besola's handwriting was on at least one of the disks containing child pornography and that indications of both Besola's and Swenson's handwriting were on multiple other disks. Besola and Swenson were each charged with and convicted of two crimes: possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and dealing in such depictions. Besola and Swenson appealed, raising a number of issues. The Court of Appeals affirmed their convictions. State v. Besola, noted at 181 Wn. App. 1013, 2014 WL 215 5229, at . Besola and Swenson petitioned for review on a number of issues, but we granted review only as to the warrant and 'to convict' instructions. Order Granting Review, State v. Besola, No. 90554-1 (Wash. Nov. 5, 2014); State v. Besola, 181 Wn.2d 1014, 337 P.3d 325 (2014). Given our holding on the warrant issue, we need not address the to convict instruction issue. ISSUE Did this search warrant meet the Fourth Amendment's particularity requirement? 4 State v. Besola/State v. Swenson No. 90554-1