## Facts

- A St. Paul mother reported a document on her family computer showing chat communications between her minor son (AM) and a user named “dlbch15,” proposing an in-person meeting and suggesting a place to hide materials for AM.
- Police learned the communications occurred in a Yahoo chat room; AM stated “dlbch15” planned to hide Playboy magazines near a specified location.
- An officer reviewed the Yahoo profile for “dlbch15,” which identified a male named Dale, age 26, from Minneapolis, and linked the nickname to the email address “dlbch15@prodigy.com.”
- Prodigy subscriber records identified Dale Robert Bach as the subscriber for that email address and provided an address and telephone number.
- Investigators determined Bach was a registered sex offender due to a 1995 Minnesota conviction for third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving sexual activity with a fourteen-year-old boy.
- Police obtained a warrant to secure Yahoo account-related evidence, including emails and IP information; Yahoo records indicated Bach had online relationships with minors, exchanged sexually explicit images, and arranged meetings with minor boys.
- Based on the Yahoo-derived evidence and the linkage of the account to Bach, police obtained a warrant to search Bach’s residence for computers, storage media, and evidence of child pornography and exploitation.
- The residential search produced computers and media containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including depictions involving a minor referred to as “BB.”
- A federal jury convicted Bach of possession, transportation, receipt, and production (use of a minor to produce) child pornography under federal statutes including 18 U.S.C. § 2251.
- The district court imposed 180 months on the production count and concurrent 121-month terms on the other counts, applying a 15-year mandatory minimum to the production count based on Bach’s prior Minnesota conviction.

## Issues

1. Whether the warrant to search Bach’s residence was supported by probable cause under the Fourth Amendment.
2. Whether Bach’s federal child-pornography and child-exploitation convictions were unconstitutional as applied to his internet-based conduct.
3. Whether Bach’s prior Minnesota conviction qualified as a prior conviction “relating to the sexual exploitation of children,” triggering the 15-year mandatory minimum for the § 2251 production offense.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentence.
- The court held the residential search warrant was supported by probable cause under the totality of the circumstances.
- The court rejected Bach’s constitutional challenges to the federal statutes as applied, concluding the interstate-commerce elements were satisfied by internet transmission and receipt.
- The court held Bach’s prior Minnesota conviction related to the sexual exploitation of children and therefore supported application of the § 2251 mandatory minimum.

## Legal Principles

- Probable cause is evaluated under the totality of the circumstances; an affidavit supports a search warrant when it provides a fair probability that evidence of a crime will be found at the place to be searched.
- In internet-based child-exploitation investigations, evidence linking an online account to a suspect, combined with communications suggesting sexual interest in minors and evidence of illegal images, can establish a sufficient nexus to search the suspect’s residence for digital evidence.
- Federal child-pornography and child-exploitation statutes may be applied to conduct involving internet transmission, receipt, and production where the statutory interstate-commerce elements are met.
- For § 2251’s recidivist mandatory minimum, the phrase “relating to the sexual exploitation of children” is construed broadly and can include state offenses criminalizing sexual activity with minors, even if the state statute is not labeled as “exploitation.”

## Conclusion

The Eighth Circuit upheld the search of Bach’s home, sustained the constitutionality of his federal child-exploitation convictions based on internet activity, and affirmed the mandatory minimum sentence for production because his prior state conviction for sexual conduct with a minor qualified as an offense relating to the sexual exploitation of children.


United States v. Bach, 400 F.3d 622 (8th Cir. 2005)