United States v. Rondeau
| Docket Number | CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 20-40049-TSH |
| Decision Date | 06 September 2022 |
| Citation | 626 F.Supp.3d 403 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America v. Christopher RONDEAU, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
Danial E. Bennett, Assistant US Attorney, United States Attorney's Office, Worcester, MA, for United States of America.
Joan Maffeo Fund, Assistant US Attorney, Cambridge, MA, for Defendant.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON DEFENDANT'S MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS SEARCH WARRANTS AND MOTION TO SUPPRESS SEARCH AND STATEMENTS
The United States of America (the "Government") charged Christopher Rondeau ("Defendant") with distribution and possession of child pornography. Defendant filed four motions to suppress contending that his online accounts were illegally searched (Docket 59), which provided an improper basis for law enforcement officers to search his residence (Docket No. 66) and his online accounts (Docket No. 71). Defendant further alleges that the statements he made to law enforcement officers were involuntary and should be suppressed (Docket No. 55). An evidentiary hearing was held on May 12, 2022. For the reasons that follow, Defendant's motions to suppress are denied.
In November 2020, Defendant lived with his family in Auburn, Massachusetts while serving a term of supervised release following his incarceration for receipt of child pornography. See Criminal Case No. 4:16-CR-40019-TSH. When law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at his home, they discovered an unauthorized cell phone containing child pornography hidden under a dresser in Defendant's bedroom. When asked, Defendant admitted the contraband cell phone was his.
In 2015, law enforcement officers identified Defendant after he accessed numerous child pornography files from a residence in Worcester. Agents executed a federal search warrant at that residence which the Defendant shared with his uncle. Agents seized several devices, including a Compaq laptop computer. An on-scene, preliminary forensic examination of that computer revealed the presence of over 1,700 image and video files depicting child pornography and child erotica.
Defendant was subsequently located and interviewed at his place of employment in Ashland, Massachusetts. Defendant admitted that he had Instagram, Tumblr, Kik, and Facebook accounts. Defendant told the agents that he viewed and downloaded more than 100 images depicting child pornography from the TOR network. He further admitted that he downloaded videos depicting child pornography from a blog site and that he masturbated to the images, saved them to his laptop, and backed the files up on an external hard drive.
Defendant admitted trading child pornography with another user on Kik, corresponding with a minor female, and trading nude images with the minor. Defendant communicated with the minor via Skype, used Skype to engage in mutual masturbation sessions, took sexually explicit screen shots the minor with his cell phone, and corresponded with and exchanged sexually explicit images with other minor females via Kik over the past couple of years.
At the conclusion of the interview in 2015, Defendant was arrested. At the time of his arrest, Defendant was in possession of a black iPhone 5S. On the same date, the Court authorized a federal criminal complaint for receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2252A(a)(2)(A) and (a)(5)(B), respectively. The Court also authorized a federal search warrant for Defendant's iPhone 5S.
A subsequent forensic examination of Defendant's iPhone in 2016 revealed information pertinent to the instant charges filed in 2020. Specifically, the accounts located on his iPhone included email address Chris_rondeau2@yahoo.com associated with his Kik account and identified his Instagram username as "bossadin." In addition, the examination also revealed messages exchanged via Kik Messenger between Defendant and JV-1 pertinent to the 2016 prosecution.
On July 12, 2016, Defendant entered a guilty plea to one count of Receipt of Child Pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 2252A(a)(5). On October 5, 2016, this Court sentenced Defendant to serve 68 months of incarceration followed by 7 years of supervised release. Defendant was released from federal custody on August 27, 2019, and his term of supervised release commenced soon thereafter.
Law enforcement officers, again, identified Defendant after he accessed numerous child pornography files from his residence, this time in Auburn while he was serving his term of supervised release for his 2016 child pornography conviction. This time Defendant used Tumblr.
Tumblr (www.tumblr.com) is a microblogging web site created in 2007 and owned by Oath Inc. ). Tumblr allows users to post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos to their own personal blog. To create their own Tumblr blog, a user provides an email address and chooses a username and password. The username becomes part of the unique web address of the user's blog. For example, an individual with the username "abcl23" would have a blog with the unique web address of abcl23@tumblr. com. A user can create secondary blogs under their registered email address. A secondary blog offers different features than a user's primary blog, including the ability to password protect the blog and have multiple users post to the blog. Defendant admitted to agents that he used Tumblr when he was interviewed in 2015. Tumblr users can also "follow" certain Tumblr blogs. If a user "follows" a blog, the posts from that blog will show up on the follower's "dashboard," which is a Tumblr user's main screen. Tumblr blogs can have several different access levels. The standard Tumblr blog is public and is accessible to anyone with the unique web address of the blog. A user can "hide" his/her blog, meaning that only users who are following the blog will be able to see the content. A user can password protect a secondary blog (but not their primary blog), thereby restricting access to members with whom he/she chooses to share the web address and password.
According to the Community Guidelines section of Tumblr's web site, Amongst the type of content Tumblr does not permit is any content harmful to minors, which it defines as "suggestive or sexual content involving a minor or anyone that appears to be a minor, or that facilitates or promotes child sexual abuse." See tumblr.com/policy/en/community (last updated July 16, 2020). According to the Law Enforcement Guidelines section of the Tumblr web site, "Tumblr reports any apparent instances of child exploitation it discovers to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) . . ." See tumblr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/231925668-Law-Enforcement-Guidelines (October 21, 2020).
Tumblr's CyberTip #1 - bossadin and bossadin.tumblr.com
On August 17, 2020, Tumblr submitted CyberTip #1 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In CyberTip #1, Tumblr identified the user bossadin (blog URL bossadin.tumblr.com, Chris_rondeau2@yahoo.com) as the account holder of a blog that contained apparent (later confirmed by FBI) child pornography. The email and username are the same as the information located on Rondeau's iPhone in 2015. Specifically, Rondeau's email address, chris_rondeau2@yahoo.com, was associated with his Kik account and his Instagram user name was "bossadin." Tumblr identified IP address 24.177.59.142 (August 17, 2020 at 03:49:38 UTC) as the last IP address associated with the user at the time of the report. Personnel at Tumblr viewed the contents of the blog and provided NCMEC with a representative sample of 18 image files from the blog's contents. According to the information contained in CyberTip #1, the offending posts were made to the blog between August 14, 2020, at 17:02:48 EDT and August 16, 2020, at 23:20:06. Tumblr identified offending posts made to the blog specifically from IP address 24.177.59.142 between August 14, 2020, at 17:02:48 EDT and August 15, 2020 at 17:06:08 EDT.2 Three of the images depict minor females engaged in sexually explicit conduct:
Tumblr's CyberTip #2 - yngsthings and yngsthings.tumblr.com
About two weeks later, on September 3, 2020, Tumblr submitted CyberTip #2 to NCMEC to identify the user yngsthings (blog URL yngsthings.tumblr.com, bossadin@protonmail.com) as the account holder of a blog that contained apparent (later confirmed by FBI) child pornography. In CyberTip #2, Tumblr identified IP address 24.177.59.142 (September 2, 2020 at 20:38:13 UTC) as the last IP address associated with the user at the time of the report. Personnel at Tumblr viewed the contents of the blog and provided NCMEC with a representative sample of six image files from the blog's contents. According to CyberTip #2, the offending posts were made to the blog between August 30, 2020 at 15:37:35 EDT and September 2, 2020 at 18:16:04. Tumblr identified offending posts made to the blog...
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