United States v. Trimble, No. 19-2077 (8th Cir. 2020)
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After defendant pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and completed his initial prison sentence, defendant violated the terms of his supervised release. The district court resentenced defendant to one year in prison followed by five years of supervised release. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's denial of his motion to modify the conditions of supervised release.
The Eighth Circuit first held that the district court had authority to rule on defendant's request for the district court to exercise its statutory authority to modify the terms of his supervised release, and there is no barrier to the court's review of the district court's judgment on appeal. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by declining to modify or eliminate the condition restricting his access to the internet, computers, and media storage devices. Furthermore, the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining the conditions related to barring contact with minors. Finally, the district court did not abuse its discretion by declining to modify the condition prohibiting defendant from shopping or working at a business that derives a majority of its revenue from the sale of alcohol.
Court Description: [Per Curiam - Before Kelly, Wollman and Stras, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. Defendant asked the district court to modify certain provisions of his supervised release and the court denied the motion; while defendant could not use a supervised-release proceeding to challenge the validity of his underlying supervised-release conditions, he could file a motion to modify, and there is no barrier to this court's review of the decision; the district court did not err in denying defendant's request to modify a provision prohibiting him from possessing, without prior approval,media storage devices, such as flash drives; no error in declining to modify a provision barring contact with any child, including in any employment defendant might have, without the prior approval of his probation officer; no error refusing to modify a provision barring defendant from working at a business which derives most of its income from the sale of alcohol. Judge Kelly, concurring
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