State v. Hershey
State v. Hershey
Opinion of the Court
¶1 Corey Hershey appeals a judgment of conviction for possession of child pornography. Hershey contends that the search warrant that police executed to search Hershey's home was unsupported by probable cause and that the court erred by applying the mandatory minimum at sentencing. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we conclude that the search warrant was supported by probable cause and the court did not err at sentencing. We affirm.
¶2 In May 2015, police executed a search warrant to search Hershey's home in Holmen, Wisconsin. Police located child pornography on Hershey's computer. The State charged Hershey with three counts of possession of child pornography.
¶3 Hershey moved to suppress the evidence obtained during the search on grounds that the search warrant lacked probable cause. The circuit court denied the suppression motion. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Hershey pled guilty to one count of possession of child pornography.
¶4 Prior to sentencing, Hershey moved for a determination that the statutory three-year mandatory minimum for possession of child pornography did not apply to him. He argued that all of the facts in the search warrant affidavit occurred and were known to police prior to new legislation that changed the three-year minimum from presumptive to mandatory. Hershey argued that he committed the crime of possession of child pornography prior to the change in the law, making application of the mandatory minimum contrary to the ex post facto clause. The circuit court determined that the mandatory minimum applied to Hershey and that it did not violate the ex post facto clause. The court imposed the mandatory minimum of three years of incarceration, plus five years of extended supervision. Hershey appeals.
¶5 Hershey contends first that the search warrant affidavit did not establish probable cause for the search warrant. In our review of a challenge to a search warrant, we give deference to the judge's decision to issue the warrant. State v. Sloan ,
¶6 Here, the April 2015 search warrant affidavit set forth the following. The affiant, Crystal Sedevie, was an investigator with the Holmen Police Department, a Wisconsin Internet Crimes Against Children Affiliate, and a Special Deputy U.S. Marshal with the FBI Cybercrimes Task Force-Milwaukee. Sedevie knew, based on her personal observations, training, and experience, that: (1) the primary manner in which child pornography is produced, distributed, and possessed is through the use of computers and the internet; (2) each time an individual uses a computer to view an online digital image or video, that material is stored in the hard drive of the computer and a forensic examination of the hard drive can identify and retrieve the material, even if it has been deleted; (3) individuals who consume child pornography use places that they consider private and secure to download, store, and view child pornography, most often the individual's residence; (4) individuals who collect child pornography often seek to increase the size of their collections and maintain their collections for many years, and a collector almost never destroys the collection; and (5) individuals who have a sexual interest in children often seek out, possess and/or collect child pornography, and are not likely to voluntarily dispose of all of the images they possess.
¶7 Sedevie was also aware that, in July 2010, Dutch authorities began an investigation into websites that contained child pornography. The websites were created and maintained by Dutch citizen Ruud Van Haaren, and Hershey had transferred $7500 to Van Haaren's business in November 2009. Van Haaren informed investigators that Hershey had also made a payment to Van Haaren of $10,000 for unlimited access to all of the images and videos on Van Haaren's websites. Emails between Hershey and Van Haaren contained discussions about Hershey's webcam chats with "models" and Hershey's offer to wire money to Van Haaren for access to websites, with the most recent email in November 2009. Investigators discovered videos on Van Haaren's computer with the name "Corey" in the title, which investigators believed meant the videos were custom-made for Hershey, and which displayed pornography with a "model" who investigators believed to be seventeen. The "model" confirmed to investigators that she believed she was under eighteen when the videos were made, and that the videos were custom-made for Hershey.
¶8 Van Haaren and his accomplice, J.S.P.A., indicated that Hershey travelled to the Netherlands in 2008 and visited Van Haaren's studio during photo shoots of nude adult women. Another individual informed investigators that she engaged in a webchat with Hershey when she was fifteen years old, during which both were nude and she was instructed to perform sexual acts before the webcam, and that Hershey sent her "birthday money."
¶9 Law enforcement representatives verified Hershey's address in Holmen through the La Crosse County tax files. They also verified with an internet provider that Hershey received internet service at his residence. Additionally, they verified with the Department of Homeland Security that Hershey had travelled to the Netherlands in 2008. The affidavit sought a search warrant to search Hershey's residence for child pornography, including on computers and other digital devices.
¶10 Hershey argues that the search warrant affidavit was insufficient to establish probable cause to believe that Hershey possessed child pornography at his residence. He argues that the affidavit does not allege any illegal actions by Hershey at his residence, instead detailing actions by Hershey in the Netherlands and the basic facts of Hershey's address and access to the internet in Wisconsin. He also asserts that the affidavit sets forth mostly legal actions by Hershey with adult "models" in the Netherlands. Hershey asserts that there are factual questions as to whether the allegedly seventeen-year-old "model" in the described videos was under eighteen, whether the videos were custom-made for Hershey, and whether Hershey ever received the videos. He asserts that the affidavit established that Van Haaren's websites presented mostly legal sexually explicit images, and that some of the material on the websites would have been legal in the Netherlands even if illegal in the United States.
¶11 First, Hershey's argument that the affidavit lacked probable cause because it included descriptions of legal conduct by Hershey is unavailing. See State v. Schaefer ,
¶12 Hershey also asserts that the affidavit did not establish the reliability of any of the information set forth because the FBI and Wisconsin police did not independently investigate and corroborate the information they received from Dutch authorities or explain why the Dutch authorities should be considered reliable. However, Sedevie set forth that she relied on information provided by Dutch authorities because that information was provided in the course of their official duties. See State v. Romero ,
¶13 Hershey also contends that, even if the affidavit did establish probable cause, probable cause was stale when the affidavit was executed in April 2015. He asserts that the delay of five years from the alleged activity in 2010 until the warrant was sought in 2015, without any intervening investigation to refresh those allegations, rendered the probable cause stale. See United States v. Batchelder ,
¶14 In Weber , the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a search warrant affidavit failed to establish probable cause to search for child pornography when it relied on Weber's response to a government solicitation for orders of child pornography and "rambling boilerplate recitations" about "the habits of 'child molesters,' 'pedophiles,' and 'child pornography collectors,' " but "not a whit of evidence in the affidavit indicating that Weber was a 'child molester' " or any information as to "how many magazines or pictures one must buy in order to be defined as a 'collector.' " Weber ,
Had [the affiant] taken the time and conscientiously drafted an affidavit tailored to what he knew about Weber rather than submitting an affidavit describing generally information about different types of perverts who commit sex crimes against children, he might have realized that he did not know enough about Weber to state that there was reason to believe that Weber was one of the 'types' described or possessed any of the habits ascribed to such types.
¶15 Assuming without deciding that Weber uses a proper frame of analysis, it is readily distinguishable. Here, Sedevie explained that she knew, based on her own extensive training and experience investigating child sex crimes, that collectors of child pornography keep their collections for many years and rarely dispose of the collection. Gralinski ,
¶16 Hershey also contends that the warrant lacked particularity because it did not explain how Sedevie had a sufficient basis to believe that the broad list of general items sought would be located in Hershey's residence, and because it authorized a wide-ranging search into Hershey's computers. See State v. Noll ,
¶17 Hershey also contends that the search warrant affidavit omitted material information that would have undermined a finding of probable cause. See State v. Mann ,
¶18 Finally, Hershey contends that the circuit court erred by imposing the three-year mandatory minimum. He argues that forensic evidence indicated that the last time he accessed the child pornography recovered from his computer was in July 2010. He points out that, in 2011, legislation was enacted that changed the presumptive three-year minimum period of initial confinement to a mandatory three-year minimum. See 2011 Wis. Act 272 (effective April 24, 2012). Hershey argues that police had all the information they needed to charge him in 2011, prior to the change in the law, and that they delayed the action against Hershey with no legitimate purpose. He also argues that, although he retained the computer with the stored child pornography in his residence, the fact that he did not access it since 2010 means that he did not "possess" it after that time. Thus, he argues, the ex post facto clause prohibited the court from sentencing him under the new statute. See State v. Thiel ,
¶19 Hershey pled guilty to one count of child pornography, admitting that, on May 4, 2015, he knowingly possessed an image of child pornography.
By the Court. -Judgment affirmed.
This opinion will not be published. See WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(1)(b)5. (2017-18).
Hershey again argues other inferences that the issuing judge could have drawn from the facts. As previously explained, the issuing judge was not required to draw innocent inferences from the facts when inferences of illegal conduct were also reasonable.
Hershey's admission that he knowingly possessed child pornography on May 4, 2015, is dispositive of Hershey's ex post facto argument. We also note, however, that we are not persuaded by Hershey's argument that a person does not "possess" child pornography that he has stored on his privately owned computer unless he accesses the images. Hershey's analogy between child pornography stored on the hard drive of a privately owned computer and the presence of child pornography on the internet is inapt. Simply put, images that a person has downloaded and stored on one's private computer are in that person's possession.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.