United States v. John Ahrndt

MEMORANDUM

John Henry Ahrndt appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence he claims resulted from a police officer’s unconstitutional warrantless search made by connecting to Ahrndt’s personal wireless network and opening one of his shared files. We reverse and remand for additional factfinding, as we explain.

JH, a resident of Aloha, Oregon, was using her computer at home and connected to a nearby unsecured wireless network to access the Internet. When she opened her iTunes software, she noticed a shared library called “Dad’s Limewire Tunes.” She opened the library and observed several files with names indicating that the files contained child pornography. After JH called the police, Deputy John McCullough arrived at her residence and directed her to repeat the process of connecting to the network and accessing the shared library. McCullough also asked JH to open one of the images; the image she opened depicted a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Based on this information, law enforcement officers obtained a search warrant to connect to the wireless network and determined that the network belonged to Ahrndt. Officers then obtained' and…