United States of America v. Eric Fevold

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
ERIC FEVOLD,
Defendant - Appellant.
No. 08-30453
D.C. No. 9:08-CR-00015-DWM-1
MEMORANDUM *
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Montana
Donald W. Molloy, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted November 3, 2009
Portland, Oregon
Before: KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, FISHER and PAEZ, Circuit Judges.
Eric Fevold appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress
evidence seized from his residence, arguing that the search warrant was not
supported by probable cause. He principally argues that the affidavit presented to
the magistrate judge was deficient because it failed to attach the relevant images
and provided only a conclusory statement that they were child pornography, see
FILED
NOV 16 2009
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

-- 1 of 2 --

2
United States v. Battershell, 457 F.3d 1048, 1051 (9th Cir. 2006) (noting that a
conclusory statement is insufficient when it is necessarily based on a subjective
determination); cf. United States v. Hill, 459 F.3d 966, 972-73 (9th Cir. 2006)
(analyzing factual descriptions of images to determine whether they were sufficient
to support probable cause); and that the website to which Fevold bought a
membership was not the same website the agents were able to access two months
later.
We need not decide whether the affidavit was sufficient to support probable
cause because, even if the alleged defects were fatal, we conclude that the agents
acted in good-faith reliance on the search warrant. See United States v. Leon, 468
U.S. 897, 922 (1984). The omissions Fevold identifies in the affidavit do not
demonstrate recklessness, and none of the other circumstances that would make
reliance on a warrant unreasonable are present here. See United States v. Crews,
502 F.3d 1130, 1136 (9th Cir. 2007).
AFFIRMED.

-- 2 of 2 --