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Judge Tosses Child-Porn Evidence Over Bad Warrant

Published: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
By Adam Silverman, Free Press Staff Writer

A Braintree man facing federal charges of possessing more than 25,000 pictures and videos of child pornography has won an effort to have a judge throw out the images.

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement improperly filled out a warrant to search the home of John Perry Ryan, 61, in violation of constitutional guarantees, making the subsequent search illegal, Chief Judge William Sessions III determined in a recent ruling at U.S. District Court in Burlington.

"In the space on the warrant reserved for a description of items to be seized, all that was written was the address of Ryan's residence," Sessions wrote in a 13-page ruling. The U.S. Constitution, he added, requires agents must be particular in listing the items they intend to examine or confiscate.

Sessions chastised the government for an overly narrow interpretation of Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches and seizures.

"It may be a dangerous intellectual enterprise to attempt to neatly parcel out specific, distinct goals for each phrase and clause of the Fourth Amendment," he wrote. "The government has failed even to acknowledge the numerous overlapping goals served by the particularity requirement."

Ryan, whom news reports in Massachusetts described as a longtime equal rights activist on Cape Cod, was indicted in April 2007 on two federal charges, one of transmitting child pornography and another of possessing it. The accusations arose from an investigation into child pornography in Switzerland, according to court papers; the transmission count accuses Ryan of sending an image to a Swiss man.

Sessions' ruling bars federal prosecutors from using the images at trial, which means the possession count is likely to be dismissed, said defense attorney David J. Williams. Ryan faced a maximum of 10 years in prison on that charge, according to statutes. The transmission count, which is expected to proceed toward trial, is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, with a five-year mandatory minimum.

Williams praised the ruling as a victory for all U.S. citizens, not solely for his client.

"Even people charged with possession of child pornography have rights," Williams said Tuesday. "If those rights are stripped away from them, it won't be long before they're stripped away from everybody."

Many of the images and videos on Ryan's computers depicted the "sexual abuse" of infants and toddlers, including in some cases bondage and sadomasochism, according to government court papers. Ryan also engaged in explicit online chats with people with whom he was trading child porn and at one point expressed a desire to "snuff," or kill, a child during a sexual act, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors argued suppression would be too great a remedy for a simple error rather than deliberate wrongdoing in filling out the search warrant. Also, the government said, supporting documents specifically listed the goals of the search and the items to be seized.

Sessions rejected that theory, writing its application would undermine the Fourth Amendment.

"The government in this case advocates a further whittling, proposing a new exception to the exclusionary rule in cases where the constitutional violation resulted from negligence rather than intentional misconduct," Sessions wrote. "The government argues that error is endemic to the human condition, that deterrence is futile, and that the court should forsake all attempts at remedy. Undergirding this argument is a fallacy that has been refuted by moral philosophers and pragmatists alike: The mere existence of human fallibility does not and should not compel us to plunge headlong into fatalism."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples said the government is considering an appeal. Ryan, meanwhile, is free on conditions, including home confinement and electronic monitoring.

Contact Adam Silverman at 660-1854 or asilverm@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com