United States of America v. Gary Farlow

After a district judge denied Gary Farlow’s motion to suppress the fruits of an allegedly illegal search of his home computer, Farlow pled guilty to one count of Unlawful Transportation of Child Pornography, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(1). His guilty plea was conditioned on his ability to bring this appeal broadly challenging the denial of his motion to suppress. Farlow’s appeal raises some interesting arguments, but in the end they cannot carry the day: for the reasons that follow, we affirm the denial of his motion to suppress, and his conviction therefore stands.

From February through April 2007, a person using the AOL screen name “FarlowMeCasa” contacted a putative 14-year-old AOL user who was actually Detective Peter Badalucco, a member of New York’s Nassau County Police Department. FarlowMeCasa sent several explicit messages to Badalucco, including proposals to meet in person for sex; Badalucco believed these messages constituted the crimes of disseminating indecent materials to minors in the first degree (N.Y. Penal Law § 235.22) and endangering the welfare of a child (N.Y. Penal Law § 260.10). Also, on March 8 FarlowMeCasa sent Badalucco an image of a bodybuilder, saying it was an image of himself; this act, though apparently not criminal, will be relevant later.