DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
083183P.pdf 08/14/2009 United States v. Harold Stults
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 08-3183
District of Nebraska - Omaha
[PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Riley and Colloton, Circuit Judges]
Criminal case - criminal law and sentencing. Users of peer-to-peer file
sharing software like LimeWire do not have a reasonable expectation of
privacy in files they make available to others using the software, and the
warrantless search of defendant's computer through LimeWire did not
violate his Fourth Amendment rights; affidavit the police used to obtain a
warrant to search defendant's home and seize his computer established
probable cause to believe child pornography would be found; defendant's
prior conviction for attempted sexual assault on a child was sufficient to
invoke the ten-year mandatory minimum sentence under 18 U.S.C. Sec.
2252(b)(2); under this court's precedents, the district court did not err
in applying the five-level enhancement under Guidelines Sec.
2G2.2(b)(3)(B) as the government produced sufficient circumstantial
evidence to meet its burden of proving defendant expected to receive
child pornography when he used LimeWire; sentence was not
unreasonable; special conditions of supervised release which controlled
defendant's contact with children, access to pornography and use of the
Internet and cameras were related to his offense and were reasonable
measures to protect the public.