Voyles V. the State of Texas Court Case Summary

In 2000, the Arlington Police Department received information stating that Earnest Leon Voyles had exchanged emails that contained sexual content with a fifteen year old girl from London, England. According to this informant the fifteen year old girl, “Amy Chang”, had been solicited for sex by Voyles and had arranged to meet with her in London to engage in a sexual relationship. Sergeant James Crouch of the Arlington Police Department was unsuccessful in contacting “Amy Chang” to verify the arrangement but was not successful, however, he was successful in verifying that Voyles was working as a teacher at a junior high located in Arlington, Texas. Working with the information provided by the informant, Sergeant Crouch, sent an email to Voyles describing himself as a fifteen year old girl named “C.J. Best” on December 28, 2000. In this email “C.J. Best” told Voyless that she was looking for a new chat buddy and that she had gotten his address through some friends and that she lived in Forth Worth, Texas. About two and a half hours later Voyles responded to the email indicating that he was interested in being chat buddies with “C.J. Best.” On January 19, 2001, after several emails were exchanged between Voyles and “Best” Sergeant Crouch obtained search warrants for Voyles home and work computers where the Arlington Police Department found and “seized child pornography off the hard drives of each unit.” Voyles was charged and indicted for possession of child pornography which is a third degree felony. In 2002, alleging that the evidence that the Arlington Police Department obtained from both his home and work computers was inadmissible claiming an unlawful search and seizure in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution and article I of the Texas Constitution, Voyles filed a motion to suppress. The Fourth Amendment and Article I of the Texas Constitution provides that a defendant has standing to challenge the admission

References: 133 S.W.3d 303; 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 2728. Retrieved from http://www.lexisnexis.com.tamusa.idm.oclc.org/hottopics/lnacademic