## Facts

- Federal investigators uncovered “Regpay,” a Minsk-based company selling access to websites containing child pornography, and seized its customer database listing purchasers and payment details.
- The database identified H. Marc Watzman, a Chicago pediatrician, as having paid for access to eight such websites.
- Investigators also linked Watzman to “Pedoshop,” a Russia-based source that offered child pornography; between April and October 2003 he ordered 89 video clips and paid about $9,700.
- Using website registration and payment information, agents traced Watzman to a Chicago post-office box and then to his residence; surveillance confirmed he lived at the identified address.
- Officers conducted a “knock-and-talk” at Watzman’s apartment using a pretext of following up on an old burglary report, entered with consent, observed computer-related items, and left.
- Agents later obtained and executed a search warrant for child pornography at the apartment, recovering thousands of digital child-pornography images and videos.
- Watzman was charged with one count of possessing child pornography and nine counts of receiving child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A.
- He entered a conditional guilty plea, preserving challenges to the denial of suppression and to the elements of the receipt counts.

## Issues

1. Whether evidence seized under the search warrant had to be suppressed because the warrant allegedly lacked probable cause and was tainted by an unlawful prior entry during the knock-and-talk.
2. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2)(A) requires proof of an “intent to traffic” for receipt counts, and whether the statute is unconstitutionally vague without such an element.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed the denial of the motion to suppress.
- The court held the warrant was supported by probable cause based on independent investigative information tying Watzman to paid access to child-pornography sites and purchases of child-pornography videos.
- The court rejected the argument that § 2252A(a)(2)(A) contains an implied “intent to traffic” element.
- The court held the receipt statute is not void for vagueness merely because it overlaps with the possession offense and carries higher penalties.

## Legal Principles

- A search warrant is supported by probable cause when the affidavit supplies a fair basis to believe evidence of a crime will be found at the place to be searched, including through payment and subscription records linked to child-pornography acquisition.
- Even if a defendant challenges a prior entry, suppression is not required where the warrant rests on information obtained independently of any alleged Fourth Amendment violation.
- Courts do not add mental-state or conduct elements to criminal statutes absent textual support; § 2252A(a)(2)(A) criminalizes knowing receipt (and distribution) and does not require intent to redistribute or “traffic.”
- Overlap between criminal statutes and prosecutorial charging choice does not, by itself, render a statute unconstitutionally vague where the statute gives fair notice and does not invite arbitrary enforcement.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit upheld the search and convictions, concluding that the warrant was supported by independent probable cause and that the federal child-pornography receipt statute requires only knowing receipt, not an intent to traffic, and is not unconstitutionally vague despite overlap with possession.


United States v. Watzman, 486 F.3d 1004 (7th Cir. 2007)