U.S. v. Seljan
| Decision Date | 30 July 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. SA CR 03-232 AHS.,SA CR 03-232 AHS. |
| Citation | 328 F.Supp.2d 1077 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Central District of California |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. John W. SELJAN, Defendant. |
Richard Lee, United States Attorney, Santa Anna, CA, for Plaintiff.
Allan H. Stokke, James D. Riddet, Stokke & Riddet, Santa Ana, CA, for Defendant.
International border search jurisprudence pertains to the lawfulness of searches conducted at, near, and distant from real borders. Defendant's motion draws into issue "exit" searches of items leaving the United States via aircraft, namely, whether Customs' searches of defendant's international Federal Express ("FedEx") document-sized packages which he sent from California to the Phillippines violated Fourth Amendment principles. Under the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment, such a search does not require any warrant, probable cause, or reasonable suspicion. The Court concludes that each of the three searches took place at the functional equivalent of the international border.
Although each package was intercepted during currency interdiction operations by United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("BICE" or "Customs") agents operating at the FedEx sorting facility based at the Oakland International Airport, these packages did not yield evidence of prohibited monetary transactions. Instead, inspectors found evidence of pedophilia-related offenses.
The evidence adduced at two suppression hearings identified the precise trans-Pacific route established by FedEx for these packages. While the packages did not depart the U.S. mainland from any real border nor directly from Oakland, under the applicable law, all three searches may be said to have taken place at the border or its functional equivalent. The evidence further shows that the defendant, in signing the air waybill, gave advance consent to the search of his packages prior to shipping them. Later searches of defendant's luggage as he attempted to depart for the Phillippines and of his residence, along with defendant's arrest and interview statements, led to and constitute admissible evidence for trial. These conclusions lead to denial of defendant's motion.
The Court makes the following Findings of Fact in support of its denial of defendant's motion.
1. On Wednesday, November 20, 2002, John W. Seljan ("defendant" or "Seljan") sent an international FedEx package to the Phillippines. This package was detained by United States Customs agents and did not depart the country until November 22, 2002.
2. On Saturday, August 2, 2003, defendant sent an international FedEx package to the Phillippines.
3. On Friday, September 26, 2003, defendant sent an international FedEx package to the Phillippines.
4. Defendant personally sent each of the three FedEx packages.
5. Affixed to each of these packages was an international air waybill that defendant filled out and signed. In signing the waybill defendant agreed to the terms and conditions located on the back of the waybill.
6. One of the air waybill's terms provides:
7. Defendant knowingly and voluntarily sent each of the three FedEx packages to the Phillippines. Defendant testified that he understood that his packages would be expected to "clear customs" before departing the United States.
8. International FedEx packages sent from Southern California are routed through the company's hub at Oakland International Airport for sorting. Overnight document-sized packages are sorted into bags by country of destination. Upon completion of a "sort" for a particular country, such as the Phillippines, FedEx places all of the document-sized packages into a single container. Prior to departure from Oakland, each container is locked, weighed and given one consolidation number per container. An individual package in the container may be tracked based on its association with the consolidation number.
9. If a package is inspected by the U.S. Customs Service, its agents do so prior to the placement of the packages into the container. Once loaded into a container, a package is not removed until it arrives in the Phillippines.
10. Due to weight restrictions at the Oakland airport, some outbound containers are placed on a truck and transported to a smaller FedEx "ramp facility" at San Francisco International Airport. Other containers are loaded onto an airplane which departs from Oakland and lands immediately in San Francisco. The trucked-in containers are directly loaded onto the same aircraft. U.S. Customs agents do not conduct further investigations of the packages or containers in San Francisco.
11. Following a set of procedures dubbed "system form" by FedEx, packages bound for the Phillippines depart on flights at approximately 4:00 a.m., Pacific time. The sorting of these packages begins the night before at the Oakland hub. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, the flight departs San Francisco and proceeds directly to the FedEx facility at Narita International Airport in Japan. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, due to increased freight, the flight stops in Anchorage, Alaska, for refueling before proceeding to Narita. There is no Monday morning flight.
12. The stop-over in Anchorage is characterized by FedEx as a "gas-and-go" because the flight lands solely to take on additional fuel. No packages or containers deplane in Anchorage. The U.S. Customs Service does not conduct inspections of FedEx flights which stop in Anchorage for refueling.
13. On November 21, 2002, Customs inspectors were conducting an outbound currency interdiction operation targeting packages bound for the Phillippines. Customs inspectors were searching packages to determine if the sender was exporting currency in violation of 31 U.S.C. § 5316.
14. On November 21, 2002, Customs Inspector Tom LeBlanc searched an international FedEx package sent by defendant. The package contained a letter, 500 pesos and $100 in currency and return address labels with defendant's name and address.
15. In its opening paragraph, the letter states, "Yes, Honey [sic] I like little girls like you, but you did not send me a picture of yourself." The letter also discusses defendant's possible travel to the Phillippines in the coming months,
16. The contents of the package were photocopied by Customs inspectors before it was returned to FedEx custody for shipment.
17. The package, before it was stopped for inspection, was outbound on the Thursday, November 21, 2002, FedEx flight. Packages departing on this flight from the Oakland sort facility were transported by truck to San Francisco International Airport and loaded onto a plane which departed immediately for Narita, Japan.
18. Due to the detention of the package by the Customs Service, it did not actually depart the United States until Friday, November 22, 2002. This flight departed San Francisco in the early morning hours but stopped in Anchorage to refuel before proceeding to Narita.
19. On Sunday, August 3, 2003, Customs inspectors were conducting an outbound currency operation called "Midnight Money" at the Oakland FedEx hub. The purpose of the operation was to interdict the illegal export of funds from the United States to the Phillippines pursuant to § 5316.
20. On that date, Customs inspectors detained and searched a FedEx package sent by defendant on the preceding day. The package was brought to the attention of Agent LeBlanc who recognized defendant's name from the November 21, 2002 package.
21. The August 3, 2003 package contained two letters and several pages of adult pornography. The first letter was addressed to the recipient of the November 21, 2002 FedEx package. The letter describes defendant's desire to engage in sex acts with the minor-recipient. The second letter, apparently addressed to the recipient's mother, states,
22. The contents of the August 3, 2003 package were photocopied, repackaged, and sent on to the Filipino address marked on the air waybill.
23. Subsequent to August 3, 2003, BICE Special Agent ("SA") Andrew Vincik commenced an investigation of defendant. SA Vincik interviewed the property manager of defendant's former residence, as well as one of defendant's former neighbors. Both stated that defendant spoke of traveling to the Phillippines to "have sex with kids," that he showed residents child pornography and that he had bragged about his video and scrapbook collection of similar materials.
24. SA Vincik's investigation revealed that defendant had traveled to the Phillippines 43 times since 1992.
25. On September 24, 2003, defendant purchased a ticket on Phillippines Air scheduled to depart from Los Angeles International Airport ("LAX") for Manila, Phillippines, on October 3, 2003.
26. On Saturday, September 27, 2003, Customs inspectors at the Oakland FedEx hub, conducting further "Operation Midnight Money" currency interdiction efforts, detained and searched a FedEx package sent the preceding day by defendant from California to the Phillippines. The package was referred to Agent LeBlanc who opened and inspected its contents.
27. The package contained nine photocopied letters, $100 in U.S. currency, non-pornographic photographs of defendant with minors and adult pornographic materials. One of the addressees was the same as the addressee of the ...
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U.S. v. Seljan
...by destination and places all document-sized packages bound for a particular country into locked containers. United States v. Seljan, 328 F.Supp.2d 1077, 1079 (C.D.Cal.2004) (order denying motion to suppress). Next, FedEx loads some containers bound for the Philippines directly on a plane t......
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U.S. v. Seljan
...The district court held that inspections at the Oakland facility were "tantamount to an inspection at the international border." Seljan, 328 F.Supp.2d at 1083. In the alternative, the district court held that Seljan had consented to these searches by agreeing to the conditions on the air wa......