United States v. Newell

Defendant was sentenced to 87 months in prison followed by a 5 year term of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to possession and attempted possession of child pornography. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's findings related to violations of two special conditions of supervised release as well as certain modified special conditions.The court held that the district court acted within its wide discretion when it found that defendant's failure to attend a treatment session violated the special condition requiring him to comply with his treatment plan; the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that defendant's discussion with a minor non-employee inside of a store was intentional, rather than incidental, contact. The court also held that defendant's pattern of dishonesty regarding his contacts with minor children combined with his previous admissions when scheduled to undergo polygraph testing were facts within the record that sufficiently satisfied the statutory requirements for imposition of a modified special condition that he undergo polygraph examination related to his sex offender treatment. Furthermore, the modified special condition regarding restricted access to Internet-connected devices was reasonably necessary to advance deterrence and protect the public. View "United States v. Newell" on Justia Law