Court Opinion

ID: 9498999
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:35:01.853688+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:13.340162
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Circuit Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the majority’s affirmance of Mr. Davis’s conviction and dismissal of his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. However, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that the district court’s supervised release condition prohibiting unsupervised contact with minor children, including his own children, constituted plain error.
Before a district court can be reversed for plain error the appellant must show “(1) error, (2) that is plain, and (3) that affects substantial rights.” Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 467, 117 S.Ct. 1544, 137 L.Ed.2d 718 (1997) (internal quotations, alteration, and citation omitted). In addition, the error must seriously affect “the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” Id. (internal quotations and citations omitted). Under our existing circuit precedent, it is not entirely clear whether Mr. Davis has shown any error, much less error that is “plain.”
We have previously upheld similar restrictions in child pornography cases. In United States v. Mark, 425 F.3d 505, 508 (8th Cir.2005), the defendant, convicted of possessing child pornography, challenged a special condition prohibiting him from having any contact with, or residing with, any children under 18 years of age, including his own children, unless the probation officer gives prior approval in writing. The defendant argued that nothing in the record indicated that he was a danger to children. Id. This court rejected the defendant’s argument, stating that “[rjequir-ing [the defendant] to obtain prior approval is a reasonable mechanism to promote compliance and to ensure that [the defendant’s] contact with minors is reasonably limited to appropriate situations. [The defendant] has a history of violating conditions of release ... and the record reflects that ... [the defendant] engaged in sexual exploration with a female family member who was a minor.” Id. While Davis has no such history, its absence should not render imposition of the special condition plainly erroneous.
Similarly, we rejected the argument of a defendant — convicted of knowingly receiving child pornography and knowingly possessing child pornography — that the special condition prohibiting him from “contact with children under the age of eighteen without the written consent of his probation officer” was an “unnecessary deprivation of his liberty interest in having contact with his own children.” United States v. Crume, 422 F.3d 728, 734 (8th Cir.2005). In upholding the condition, we stated:
But children, including those of [the defendant], are members of the public that the terms of supervised release seek to protect. In fact, the daughter with whom he desires contact is the child conceived as the result of his impregnating a fourteen-year-old girl. The presen-*997tence investigation report reflects that this now-adult woman remains fearful of [the defendant] and worries that he may-try to molest her daughter.
The challenged condition, moreover, does not completely prohibit [the defendant] from interacting with his children. He may have contact with children, including his own, with the written consent of his probation officer. We also note that we do not agree with the defendant that this provision prohibits him from accepting a letter written to him by one of his children. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion by forbidding [the defendant] from having contact with children under the age of eighteen absent written consent.
Id; see also United States v. Ristine, 335 F.3d 692, 696 (8th Cir.2003) (upholding a special condition that barred the defendant, who was convicted of possessing child pornography, from going to places where minor children congregate without prior approval from his probation officer because the purpose of the condition was to limit the defendant’s access to children and the restriction should be read to prohibit the defendant’s presence only at places where minor children congregate); United States v. Heidebur, 417 F.3d 1002, 1004 (8th Cir.2005) (upholding a special condition that prohibited the defendant from contact with children under the age of 18 unless the probation officer gave prior written permission because the deprivation of liberty was not greater than that which is reasonably necessary under the circumstances, considering the defendant was convicted of conduct involving the sexual exploitation of a minor); United States v. Vick, 421 F.3d 794 (8th Cir.2005) (upholding a supervised release condition that prohibited the defendant, who was convicted of possessing child pornography, from having contact with children under the age of 18, including his daughter, unless he received prior written approval from his probation officer because the condition was tailored to the defendant’s “extensive history with minors, was reasonably related to the nature of seriousness of the offense, and was needed to deter [the defendant] and protect the public”).
Other recent decisions have also approved “ ‘virtually identical supervised release conditions’ ” for defendants who have pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography. See United States v. Levering, 441 F.3d 566, 569 (8th Cir.2006) (quoting United States v. Mickelson, 433 F.3d 1050, 1057 (8th Cir.2006)). In Mickelson, the defendant pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography, admitting that some of the images he had received “depicted children under the age of 12 and sadistic or masochistic violence.” Id. at 1051. The defendant, however, challenged a special condition that “require[d] him to have no contact with anyone under the age of 18 without the express written permission of the probation office” as being “unnecessary and unreasonable given the circumstances of his case, including his close relationship with his grandchildren.” Id. at 1056. In rejecting the defendant’s argument, we held:
[Requiring prior approval before a convicted sex offender has contact with minors is a reasonable means of ensuring that such contact remains appropriate. The district court’s refusal to incorporate a blanket exception for [defendant’s] grandchildren or other family members was not unreasonable given the fact that most sexual abuse of children takes place at the hands of family members or friends. Moreover, [defendant] has not been forbidden from seeing his grandchildren or any other family member; he is merely required to seek prior permission. If such permission is arbitrarily or unfairly denied, he *998is free to seek relief from the district court under § 3583(e). This arrangement does not constitute an abuse of discretion.
Id. at 1057 (internal citations omitted).
Considering our case law on special conditions restricting a defendant’s contact with children when the defendant pleads guilty to receiving child pornography, I conclude that in the absence of a timely objection, imposition of the supervised release provision in question does not constitute plain error. First, as noted in Mickelson, it was not unreasonable for the district court to include Davis’s daughter in its supervised release condition, considering his daughter is entitled to just as much protection as other minors. Second, Davis is not barred from seeing his daughter; instead, the condition, which is subject to later modification, limits his visits to those with supervision. Finally, as Mickelson indicates, proof that Davis personally inflicted child sexual abuse is not necessary to support restrictions on access to children; Davis, like the defendant in Mickelson, possessed illegal child pornography, including short movies depicting a variety of oral and anal sexual acts, several images depicting sexual bondage with children, and images depicting victims under the age of 12. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.