US v. Goodwin, Crim. No. 87-00240-A.

• Decision Date: 07 December 1987
• Docket Number: Crim. No. 87-00240-A.
• Citation: 674 F. Supp. 1211
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Ralph E. GOODWIN, Jr. a/k/a Ralph E. Goodwon.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Virgin Islands

674 F. Supp. 1211

UNITED STATES of America v. Ralph E. GOODWIN, Jr. a/k/a Ralph E. Goodwon.

Crim. No. 87-00240-A.

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Alexandria Division.

December 7, 1987.

James M. Sullivan, Asst. U.S. Atty., Alexandria, Va., for plaintiff.

Frederick Sinclair, Alexandria, Va., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ELLIS, District Judge.

Introduction

This is an 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2) child pornography prosecution. Defendant concedes the facts. They are stipulated. Only legal defenses are raised. Specifically, in an earlier motion, defendant challenged the anticipatory search warrant that allowed authorities to seize the pornographic material almost contemporaneously with its delivery to defendant. That challenge was turned back.¹

In this proceeding, defendant first attacks federal jurisdiction, contending that the government illegitimately manufactured the interstate commerce element. But the principal legal defense is a due process attack on the government's conduct leading to defendant's arrest. Neither attack succeeds. Federal jurisdiction validly exists; it is neither manufactured nor illegitimate. The due process attack, though not insubstantial, also ultimately fails. On close inspection, the government's conduct does not violate due process; it does not offend traditional notions of fairness; and it is neither shocking nor disproportionate to the evil at which it is aimed.

The failure of these legal defenses coupled with the stipulated facts, which the court accepts and adopts, compels the court to conclude that the offense charged against the defendant, in all its elements, has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. It follows that defendant must be and is adjudged guilty as charged in the indictment.

Facts

Operation Looking Glass, which led to defendant's arrest, was conceived and implemented by the United States Postal Inspection Service to ferret out and prosecute consumers of child pornography. This group is one of the targets of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2).² The perniciousness of child pornography can hardly be exaggerated. Children are horribly victimized and abused to feed a most unwholesome and destructive appetite. To combat this growing scourge,³ Operation Looking Glass set out to identify those who were predisposed to consume child pornography and who sought to use the United States mails for this purpose. The means chosen was an undercover operation.

The Far Eastern Trading Co., Ltd. of Hong Kong is an undercover child pornography mail order firm established by the Postal Inspection Service to accomplish the purpose of Operation Looking Glass. Hong Kong was chosen with the consent and cooperation of the local government apparently because substantial amounts of child pornography come from overseas. A branch office was located at P.O. Box 3071, Frederiksted, St. Croix, Virgin Islands, 00840, in order, as we shall see, to add to the authenticity of the operation.

The method of operation was simple and effective. In general, various means were used to identify persons, initially at least, as predisposed towards child pornography. Typically, initial identification of targets was accomplished by answering advertisements apparently seeking such material or by the use of lists transmitted by the Customs Service of persons to whom offending material had been sent from overseas and then seized. Subsequent test correspondence was sent to confirm predisposition. Thereafter, the target was sent a catalog and order form. This material, as well as the pornographic materials themselves, was assembled by the government at Operation Looking Glass' facilities in Newark, N.J. All pornographic materials used in the operation were taken from material earlier seized by the authorities. Orders received were filled by sending the material from Newark to Postal Inspector Northrop in Washington, D.C., who in turn placed the material in an envelope with a St. Croix stamp and postmark and then had the postal service deliver the material to the individual. Very shortly thereafter,⁴ the individual was visited by the authorities armed with a search warrant. The arrest followed.⁵

In the instant case, the essential facts fit this pattern. Defendant, Ralph E. Goodwin, Jr., first came to the Postal Inspection Service's attention in September, 1983 when he placed the following advertisement in the October issue of the now defunct Met Forum, a Washington area swinger's magazine:⁶

Wanted: Lollitots, moppets & chicken magazines & photographs. If you have single copies you want to sell, send your telephone number to MP Code 3941.

Test correspondence with the person who placed the ad revealed that it was the defendant, Ralph Goodwin, and that defendant was a "beginner," whose "latent desires" were just then emerging.⁷ The September, 1983 test letter received from defendant confirmed his interest in obtaining the types of material described in the ad as well as accounts of personal experiences. He identified himself as a mid-forties, married, white male with four children and employed by a large advertising firm.⁸

While the 1983 ad and resulting correspondence were the first evidences of defendant's predisposition, they were not the last. Mr. Goodwin was also known to the Postal Inspection Service through additional test correspondence. In this correspondence, defendant stated that he spent over $100 a year on hard core pornography usually through the mails or from Europe and that he was interested in teenage and pre-teenage sexual activity involving both heterosexual and homosexual activity.

Defendant's contact with Operation Looking Glass leading to his arrest and indictment commenced in March, 1987. Based on substantial previous evidence of predisposition, the Far Eastern Trading Company sent him a solicitation letter on March 20, 1987. The letter, on Hong Kong stationery, was enclosed in an envelope on which defendant's name was incorrectly spelled as "Goodwon". This solicitation letter plainly focused on child pornography. It stated:

As many of you know, much hysterical nonsense has appeared in the American media concerning "pornography" and what must be done to stop it from coming across your borders. This brief letter does not allow us to give much comments; however, why is your government spending millions of dollars to exercise international censorship while tons of drugs, which makes yours the world's most crime ridden country are passed through easily. We have read the comments of Mr. Van Rabb of your Customs Service concerning the efforts of his agents to find "children's pornography" and we find that many of you are denied a product because of that agency. After conversation with enlightened Americans, we have found that if material is given to your post without a Custom inspection, a search warrant must be gotten in order to open your mail.

For those of you who have enjoyed youthful material from publishers such as COQ, Color Climax, Rodox and others, we have devised a method of getting these to you without prying eyes of U.S. Customs seizing your mail. All material that you order from your company will be sent to you through our branch office in the Virgin Islands. After consultations with American solicitors, we have been advised that once we have posted our material through your system, it cannot be opened for any inspection without authorization of a judge.

The letter included a response coupon, which defendant filled out requesting further information. He also signed a disclaimer on the response coupon, promising that he was not an undercover law enforcement agent. The disclaimer added authenticity to the letter. Defendant mailed the completed response form to the St. Croix address, where it was forwarded unopened to Inspector Northrop in Washington, D.C. Northrop opened the letter on April 30, 1987.

In response to defendant's request for more information, a mailing containing a catalog of available mail order child pornography material was sent to defendant by the Far Eastern Trading Company, with United States postage affixed and a Virgin Islands postmark. The catalog provided detailed descriptions of seven video tapes, two 8mm films and seven magazines, all dealing with child pornography. Each item was generally described as consisting of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Two letters were also included in the mailing. One informed defendant of the procedures to follow in ordering material, while the second provided information to those who wished to sell child pornography to Far Eastern Trading Company.

Defendant responded by placing an order. On May 14, 1987, a letter from defendant was received at Far Eastern's Virgin Islands post office box. The letter bore a May 3, 1987, northern Virginia postmark and was forwarded to Inspector Northrop in Washington who opened it on May 15, 1987. The letter contained an order from defendant for four magazines advertised in the catalog together with a check for $80.00 signed by defendant and drawn on the business account of Business Promotions, Inc. at First Virginia Bank, Falls Church, Virginia. The letter requested that the material be sent to 10208 Tamarack Drive, Vienna, Virginia 22180, defendant's home address. The four magazines defendant ordered, Torrid Tots, Lolita Sex, Children Love, and Boys Who Love Boys all were advertised as depicting children in sexually explicit situations.⁹ It is stipulated, and the court agrees, that each magazine contains visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct involving individuals under the age of 18 years as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2256.¹⁰

Far Eastern, through its Newark, N.J. office, responded to defendant's order by preparing two of the magazines, Children Love and Boys Who Love Boys, for mailing. The magazines were prepared under controlled circumstances from material previously seized or purchased during Postal Inspection Service investigations. The...