United States v. Benjamin Zarn

MEMORANDUM

Benjamin Leo Zarn appeals his conviction after a bench trial for receipt of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2). He contends that there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction. Although Zarn admits to searching for and viewing child pornography on the Internet on multiple occasions, he did not download the images or know that the computers he used were automatically caching the images.

A court need not find that the defendant downloaded the images to convict him or her of possessing or receiving child pornography: “In the electronic context, a person can receive and possess child pornography without downloading it, if he or she seeks it out and exercises dominion and control over it.” United States v. Romm, 455 F.3d 990, 998 (9th Cir.2006) (citing United States v. Tucker, 305 F.3d 1193, 1204 (10th Cir.2002)). Regardless of whether Zarn was aware that the computers automatically cached the child pornography images, he exercised dominion and control over those images. Zarn repeatedly used specific search terms and web addresses to seek out and access web sites containing child pornography images, he caused those images to appear on the…