Court Opinion

ID: 9496378
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:25:02.114889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:32.377415
License: Public Domain

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
I do not agree that the evidence was properly seized as evidence “in the nature of’ child abuse or as evidence of an incriminating nature under the plain view doctrine. The photographs at issue were lawful photographs of consenting adults and have no relationship to child abuse. In addition, there is no reason to believe that those lawful photographs of adults were “linked to criminal activity.” Although the evidence may well have been admissible at trial if properly seized, as relevant to his claim that he had no intent to take explicit photographs, that is not the same question as whether it is “in the nature of’ child abuse for purposes of the initial seizure, or as whether it is of “an incriminating nature that is immediately apparent” for the plain view doctrine.
Although I disagree with the majority on those points, I agree that the admission of the evidence does not constitute reversible error. Raney cannot demonstrate the failure to suppress the photographs constitutes plain error because he cannot establish that it affected his substantial rights, or prejudiced him. Raney stated in his emails his intention to take pictures of the *562two of them engaged in various sex acts, and had e-mailed a picture of himself nude. Raney also told “Dena” that he would bring his camera and needed to stop for film, and the police seized the camera loaded with film and an empty Kodak film box from Raney’s car at the time of his arrest. The photographs do not add anything to that. At most, the photographs indicate Raney’s ability and willingness to take such pictures, but the picture of himself that he e-mailed, the statements in his email, and his actions in bringing the camera and purchasing film for it, establish those same propositions much more directly. Because I agree that there is no plain error here requiring reversal, I concur in the judgment.