U.S. v. Boston

• Decision Date: 16 July 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-4137.,06-4137.
• Citation: 494 F.3d 660
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Mark Kevin BOSTON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

494 F.3d 660

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Mark Kevin BOSTON, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 06-4137.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: June 11, 2007.

Filed: July 16, 2007.

Counsel who represented the appellant was patricia M. Hulting of Des Moines, IA.

Counsel who represented the appellee was John S. Courter, AUSA, Des Moines, IA.

Before MURPHY, BEAM, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

The district court¹ found Mark Kevin Boston guilty of producing child pornography and sentenced him to 30 years imprisonment followed by lifetime supervised release. Boston appeals, arguing that the district court erred by denying his suppression motions and by imposing a sentencing enhancement for engaging in an offense involving sexual contact and that certain of the special conditions of his supervised release violate his constitutional rights. We affirm.

On April 10, 2005 at approximately 5:00 pm, off duty Des Moines police officer Benjamin Ihde was riding his bicycle on the Riverview Park trail when he saw Boston walking at a slow pace approximately 150 feet ahead of him. Boston was looking toward the river where a group of adults and children were fishing, and he appeared to be masturbating. As Ihde came closer to him, Boston turned to the side and Ihde saw that his penis was exposed. Ihde yelled, "Hey, put that thing away," stopped his bike, and identified himself to Boston as a Des Moines police officer.

Ihde asked Boston for identification. Boston took a backpack off his shoulder and set it on the ground before reaching into his pocket for his wallet. Ihde asked him what was inside the backpack, and Boston said it contained a knife and some pictures of children. Ihde asked, "Are they naughty pictures?" When Boston replied "Yes," Ihde told him to step away from the backpack. Ihde opened the bag and saw an 8" × 10" computer printout of a 12 or 13 year old boy with his genitals exposed. He closed the bag, told Boston to place his hands behind his head, and patted him down to confirm he did not have any weapons on his person.

After Ihde called police dispatch and requested assistance from on duty officers, Boston told him he had been urinating when Ihde first saw him, not masturbating. Officers Ballantini and Carter responded to Ihde's call and took Boston to jail where they searched his backpack. Inside the bag they found approximately 163 computer printed pictures of minors engaged in sexual activity, a Polaroid camera and film, a knife, a pellet gun, two condoms, a jar of petroleum jelly, a box of flushable wipes, pens, golf balls, and other items. When police searched his home the following day, they found that Boston had stored hundreds of pictures of child pornography, some of which matched the printouts found by Ihde in Boston's backpack during his arrest.

The backpack also contained several Polaroid pictures of a juvenile male, Z, whose penis was exposed. There was also writing on a note card that said, "[Z], white, no glasses, age 12, small build, going in seventh grade at Harding, size eight shoe." Based on the note card description and the Polaroid pictures, Detective Larry Penland of the Des Moines Police Department's sexual abuse unit was able to identify Z as a local resident. Penland then arranged to interview Z at Harding Middle School on April 12, 2005.

Z told Detective Penland that he had been fishing near Riverview Park on August 13, 2004, when an older white male approached him and started asking a lot of "weird" sexual questions about his "privates." After being shown the Polaroid pictures of himself, Z acknowledged that the man had taken pictures of him and described the camera the man had used. His description matched the camera seized from Boston on April 10, 2005. Z also said the man had driven a small red car. When police later went to Boston's residence, they saw a small maroon or red colored Sable in the driveway. During the interview, Z told Detective Penland that the man had touched him in "sick places." He then became very upset and did not want to explain what he meant in any more detail.

Detective Penland told Z that he would like to show him a photographic lineup. Before showing the lineup Penland read Z the department's standard instructions for pretrial identification. After reading the instructions verbatim and confirming that Z understood them, Penland showed Z a photographic lineup which contained Boston's picture and five booking photos from the Polk County jail records. All six photographs showed male subjects with similar skin color, hair style, and age. Z looked at the photos for approximately thirty seconds before identifying Boston as the man from "the pond." When asked how sure he was on a scale of one to ten that Boston was the right man, Z responded "five." He stated that he did not recognize any of the other men pictured.

Boston was indicted for producing visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, using materials transported in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a), for receiving child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2), and for possessing child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B). Boston waived his right to a jury trial, and prior to trial the government moved to sever the counts charging receipt and possession of child pornography. Boston went to trial before the court on the single count of producing visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The district court found Boston guilty of the production charge and dismissed the receipt and possession counts on the government's motion at sentencing.

The district court set Boston's base offense level under the advisory sentencing guidelines at 32, for sexually exploiting a minor by production of sexually explicit visual or printed material. U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1(a). The court then applied a two level enhancement because the offense involved a minor between the ages of 12 and 16, see U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1(b)(1)(B), and another two level enhancement because the offense involved a sexual act or sexual contact. See U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1(b)(2)(A). With a total offense level of 36 and criminal history V, Boston's advisory guideline range was 300 to 365 months. The district court sentenced him to 360 months imprisonment and recommended it be served in the sexual offender program at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina. The district court also ordered that Boston be placed on lifetime supervised release following his term of imprisonment with eighteen special conditions. Special condition 4 prohibits Boston from viewing, possessing, or entering a location that sells any form of pornography or sexually explicit material deemed inappropriate by his probation officer or treatment staff. Special condition 14 prohibits him from accessing or possessing computers without prior written approval of his probation officer.

Boston appeals his conviction and sentence. He contends that the district court should have suppressed the evidence seized from his backpack and house and Z's pretrial identification, that the district court erred by applying a two level enhancement for committing a sexual act or sexual contact with the minor, and that his supervised release special conditions 4 and 14 are overbroad and violate his First Amendment rights.

Boston argues that the court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence seized during his April 10, 2005 arrest. He claims Officer Ihde's testimony that he was masturbating instead of urinating was not credible and could not support the district court's finding that Ihde had probable cause to arrest him. Boston concedes that Ihde could have arrested him under Iowa Code § 7-909² if he had been masturbating, but he asserts that the statute requires a sexual motive and would not authorize an arrest for urinating and that there is no equivalent statute prohibiting public urination.³ Boston contends that because Ihde was on a bike wearing headphones and some trees were in his line of sight, he would not have been able to tell whether Boston was masturbating or urinating. The government responds that the district court's decision to credit Ihde's testimony that Boston was masturbating is virtually unreviewable on appeal and that the arrest was valid as a matter of law.

On an appeal from an order denying a motion to suppress, we review the district court's factual findings for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo. United States v. Black Bear, 422 F.3d 658, 661 (8th Cir.2005). Ihde testified at the suppression hearing that he perceived that Boston was masturbating and this led to his decision to arrest him. In denying the motion the district court stated that it believed the facts were as Ihde testified, a determination that is "virtually unreviewable on appeal." United States v. Hernandez, 281 F.3d 746, 748 (8th Cir.2002) (internal quotation omitted). The district court found it implausible that "one urinating would keep walking forward as he urinates." We conclude that the district court did not err in finding that Boston was masturbating, that Ihde had probable cause to believe he was violating Iowa Code § 7-909, and that Ihde's arrest was valid. Iowa Code § 804.7 (peace officer may arrest without warrant where a public offense is committed in his presence); Iowa Code § 701.2 ("public offense" is prohibited by statute and punishable by fine or imprisonment). Boston's statements to Ihde that he had a knife and naughty pictures of children in his backpack were not extracted by threats, violence, or promises and were voluntarily made. See United States v. Gipp, 147 F.3d 680, 683 (8th Cir.1998). For these reasons Ihde had probable cause both to search Boston and to search his backpack incident to his arrest. United States v. Oakley, 153 F.3d 696, 698 (8th Cir.1998). The district court did not err in denying Boston's motion...