UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 05-30397 Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  D.C. No. CR-04-05525-FDB JOEL BATTERSHELL, OPINION Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington Franklin D. Burgess, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted June 5, 2006—Seattle, Washington

Filed August 10, 2006

Before: Robert R. Beezer, Richard C. Tallman, and Jay S. Bybee, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Tallman

9259 9262 UNITED STATES v. BATTERSHELL

COUNSEL Colin Fieman, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Tacoma, Washington, for the defendant-appellant. John McKay, United States Attorney, Seattle, Washington, for the plaintiff-appellee. UNITED STATES v. BATTERSHELL 9263 OPINION TALLMAN, Circuit Judge:

We are asked to determine whether a search warrant appli- cation describing allegedly illegal photos contained on a com- puter was sufficient to establish probable cause to search the computer when the application did not include copies of the offending images.

Vancouver, Washington, police seized Joel Battershell’s computer after responding to a call from Battershell’s girl- friend and her sister that they had found child pornography on it. Four months later, a police forensic detective trained in retrieving computer evidence applied for a search warrant to examine its contents. The warrant application signed by the forensic investigator did not include copies of the digital pho- tographs taken by patrol officers of two pictures the officers had seen on the computer when they took the complaint. The police report appended to the warrant application, however, recited the women’s original complaint that the computer con- tained photos of “kids having sex” as well as the officers’ description of the two photos they had viewed.

A Clark County, Washington, district court judge found the warrant application sufficient to establish probable cause that Battershell’s computer contained images of minors engaged in sexually explicit activity. Following the search, Battershell was indicted for possession of more than 2,500 prohibited images located on his computer and he moved to suppress the evidence seized pursuant to the warrant on grounds that the warrant was invalid. The United States district judge denied his motion and this appeal followed a conditional plea of guilty. We affirm.

I

The following facts are drawn from the evidence presented at the suppression hearing before the federal district court and on the court’s factual findings in support of its ruling. 9264 UNITED STATES v. BATTERSHELL On April 6, 2004, Vancouver Police Officer Steven Lobdell responded to a call from Grace Smith, Battershell’s girlfriend, reporting that she and her sister had found pictures of minors engaged in sexual activity on Battershell’s computer. Smith had been living at Battershell’s home for three months and was given permission to use the computer so that she and her sister could look for jobs online. Smith and her sister told Officer Lobdell that while using Battershell’s computer they had opened a file entitled “Potter,” in which they saw pictures of “kids having sex.” Smith and her sister also told the officer that Battershell was the only Windows user.

Smith and her sister opened the “Potter” folder and gave Officer Lobdell permission to view several small thumbnail photos. It was clear that some of the photos showed undressed people, but Officer Lobdell enlarged two pictures to see more details. According to Officer Lo