Manzione v. State

Under the totality of the circumstances, the magistrate had a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed to issue a search warrant, even though the agent seeking the warrant did not contact Yahoo to confirm the identity of the employee, who reported the posting of child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which then contacted the GBI.

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Following a stipulated bench trial, Elton Felix Manzione was convicted of twenty counts of sexual exploitation of children after law-enforcement officers executed a search warrant and seized from his home computer various images depicting young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Prior to trial, Manzione unsuccessfully moved to suppress the images, arguing that the affidavit supporting the search-warrant application was legally insufficient to support a finding of probable cause. Manzione argues that the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress. For the reasons discussed infra , we disagree and affirm. The facts of this case as presented at the motion-to-suppress hearing are undisputed. In May 2005, Yahoo Inc. —a web portal and provider of various and sundry internet services —discovered four graphical images depicting young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct that had been uploaded to one of its online discussion boards referred to as a Yahoo Group. After identifying the internet protocol “IP” address assigned to the computer from which the images were posted, Yahoo utilized an internet database called “WHOIS” to establish that Charter Communications was the internet service provider supplying online access to the originating computer, and further discovered that the subject computer was located in Athens, Georgia.

In accordance with the mandates set forth in 42 U.S.C. § 13032 b 1,1 the custodian of records at Yahoo reported the offensive images and its subsequent findings —including the IP address for the originating computer —to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children “NCMEC” CyberTipline, a national clearinghouse for information about children believed to be missing or sexually exploited. As also required by 42 U.S.C. § 13032 b 1, NCMEC placed Yahoo’s report and supporting documentation, including copies of the offending images, onto a compact disc and forwarded it, unedited, to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations “GBI”.2

Manzione v. State

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