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E-FILED

Monday, 09 March, 2015 03:12:17 PM
Clerk, U.S. District Court, ILCD
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
URBANA DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff,
v.
BRIAN W. DAVIS,
f.k.a. JOHN DOE #1
ANDREW D. HOFF,
f.k.a. JOHN DOE #2
DAVID DELALIO,
f.k.a. JOHN DOE #3
JASON T. GMOSER,
f.k.a. JOHN DOE #4,
and
DAKOTA K. MARTIN
f.k.a. JOHN DOE #5,
Defendants.

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Case No. 14-CR-20048

THE GOVERNMENT’S EX PARTE MOTION TO EXTEND
SEALING AND REDACTION ORDER
The United States of America, by and through its attorneys, James A. Lewis,
United States Attorney for the Central District of Illinois, Assistant United States
Attorney Elly M. Peirson, and Trial Attorney, Keith A. Becker, moves this Court to
extend its order redacting the defendant’s user names and details of the investigation

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from public documents in the case for an additional 90 days. In support thereof, the
government states the following:
1.

On October 10, 2014, this Court granted the government’s Motion to

Redact User Names and Details of the Investigation from public court documents. (R.
32). The Court ordered that said documents were to remain under seal for a period of
30 days. On November 12, 2014, the Court extended that order for 30 additional days.
On December 8, 2014, the Court again extended that order for 90 additional days.
2.

The government initially argued that not all of the defendants were

identified and apprehended, therefore there existed a great risk that disclosure of this
information would impair the ongoing investigation, increase the risk of flight of the
unidentified defendants and obstruct justice. The government subsequently worked
diligently to identify the other defendants and has now identified and arrested all five
currently charged defendants. All of those defendants have been provided, through
counsel, complete and un-redacted copies of the Indictments in this case.
3.

The defendants are charged with being members and administrators of a

particular child pornography website. Although at this time, the website is no longer
operating, investigation into numerous other users of that website remains ongoing.
4.

In its previous extension request, the government advised the Court that

new information had recently become available that may assist in the identification of
further users of the website. That information includes identifying IP address
information regarding more than 30 registered users of the website. The information

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was provided to the FBI by a foreign law enforcement agency. That sort of IP address
information is particularly crucial in the context of this website, because the website
operated on the anonymous Tor computer network, which masks the true IP addresses
of its users. All of those users are currently under investigation for producing,
distributing, receiving and accessing child pornography through this website.
Information about those more than 30 users has been distributed by the FBI to field
offices throughout the United States. Enforcement efforts remain ongoing in order to
identify and apprehend those subjects. In addition, agents have utilized the user name
of one the defendants in an undercover capacity. Revealing the user name in these
sealed documents will compromise the integrity on that ongoing investigation.
5.

For example, on February 4, 2015, law enforcement agents conducted a

search at a residence in the State of Texas based upon this information. A subject was
identified at the address and law enforcement obtained information tying that subject to
the production of child pornography involving three separate victims, including the
sexual abuse of a toddler-aged child. The subject was subsequently Indicted on federal
charges including production and possession of child pornography.
6.

Courts are authorized to seal court documents, upon a proper showing. In

re: Eye Care Physicians, 100 F.3d 514, 518, 519 (7th Cir. 1996) (court need not disclose
search warrant affidavits when such disclosure might “impair the ongoing criminal
investigation”). Revealing the usernames of the charged defendants and details about
the website in question in public court documents, particularly in consideration of the

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defendants’ roles as administrators of the website, poses a substantial risk to jeopardize
the investigation into other users. The defendants’ usernames would be immediately
recognizable to any users of the website in question, who would immediately be aware
that those users had been identified and arrested. This may cause other users under
investigation to notify other users, destroy evidence, and take further steps to conceal
their identities and evidence of their crimes. This concern is heightened because of the
presence of multiple administrative-level users together in this Indictment, which inand-of-itself suggests that law enforcement successfully infiltrated the website. Further,
users of the website have innumerable other ways to communicate with one another,
through the open Internet or the anonymous Tor network. There remain websites on
the Tor network dedicated to pedophilia and child pornography which are frequented
by users such as those under investigation. Such users could easily post information
about law enforcement’s infiltration of the website anonymously on or through the Tor
network. Accordingly, a single user could be able to successfully notify thousands of
fellow site users of the defendants’ arrests with a single communication.
7.

Users of illegal child pornography websites such as the site involved in

this case are extremely sensitive to law enforcement infiltration. The undersigned
represents the government in another prosecution involving users of a child
pornography website where, upon the release of a search warrant affidavit which
contained details about the website (but did not name the site) and publication of a
news article describing the investigation, Internet users of a website dedicated to the

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discussion and promotion of pedophilia started a discussion thread in which they
correctly identified the name of the website and sought advice regarding actions they
should take to avoid detection or destroy evidence. For example, one user identified
himself as a member of the website and asked “what sort of danger am I in? Should I
start smashing hard drives?”
WHEREFORE, the United States of America requests that this Court enter an
order extending its previous order redacting the defendant’s user names and details of
the investigation from public documents in the above-captioned case for an additional
90 days.
Respectfully submitted,

By:

JAMES A. LEWIS
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
s/Keith A. Becker
KEITH A. BECKER, NY Bar No. 4287967
Trial Attorney
Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section
Department of Justice, Criminal Division
1400 New York Ave. NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20530
(202) 305-4104 (office)
keith.becker@usdoj.gov
s/Elly M. Peirson
Elly M. Peirson, IL Bar No. 6298075
Assistant United States Attorney
201 S. Vine Street, Suite 226
Urbana, Illinois 61802
Telephone: (217) 373-5875
elly.peirson@usdoj.gov

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that on March 9, 2014, I electronically filed a notice of the
foregoing ex parte motion, along with a redacted version of this document, with the
Clerk of the Court using the CM/ECF system which will send notification of such filing
to the following:
Jon Gray Noll
Noll Law Office, LLC
930 E. Monroe St.
Springfield, IL 62701
noll@noll-law.com

Mark Wykoff
Wykoff Law Office, LLC
919 South Eight Street
Springfield, IL 62703
mark@wykofflaw.com

Scott J. Frankel
FRANKEL & COHEN
Suite 1615
53 W. Jackson
Chicago, IL 60604
scottfrankel@aol.com

Bradley M. Kraemer, Esq.
Caparella-Kraemer & Associates,LLC
4841-A Rialto Road
West Chester, Ohio 45069
Bradley@Caparellakraemer.com

Elisabeth Pollock
Assistant Federal Defender
300 W. Main St.
Urbana, IL 61802
Elisabeth_Pollock@fd.org,
s/Keith A. Becker
KEITH A. BECKER, NY Bar No. 4287967
Trial Attorney
Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section
Department of Justice, Criminal Division
1400 New York Ave. NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20530
(202) 305-4104 (office)
keith.becker@usdoj.gov

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