US v. Haas: Haas had several liaisons with a woman named "Sarah" via the website Backpage. During one of these, he told Sarah that he was interested in "younger women" and then later asked if she was interested in "what he was talking about last time." Sarah said she was, but, unbeknownst to Haas, she was working with law enforcement. Haas then showed her "probably like 1500" child pornography images on his laptop. As part of the ensuing investigation, the FBI got pictures of Haas and his home and verified his phone number. After further communication with Haas, during which he responded positively to Sarah's story that she had a friend in Baltimore who had children she would bring to Haas to create child pornography, Haas agreed to meet Sarah and give her $100 to give to her friend.
On her way to the meeting, Sarah was pulled over for traffic violations by local police, whom she gave a false name (she did manage to get the $100 from Haas). A week later, she told the FBI agent working with her about the traffic stop, her using a false name, and her wish to "resolve the false-identity issue." The agent reached out to local police and Sarah was eventually arrested and charged with lying to police. Later, Sarah made a pair of recorded phone calls with Haas in which he discussed the plan with the friend from Baltimore. The agent obtained two search warrants - one for Haas' home and vehicle, one for his work truck and the laptop found in it - and did not mention in either application Sarah's arrest or lying to police. Myers unsuccessfully sought to suppress the fruits of both searches, seeking a Franks hearing based on the omissions from the warrant applications, and ultimately received a life sentence.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed Haas' conviction, but did vacate his sentence. On the Franks issue, the court held that Haas had not made a sufficient showing to warrant a hearing. Particularly with regard to the omission from the warrant application of Sarah's false statements, the court distinguished this case from its holding in Lull, noting that the informant's lie in that case was to the agent seeking the warrant, not other officers, that there was no evidence Sarah provided false information to the agent in this case, and that her misconduct did not lead the FBI to stop using her as an informant. The court also noted that nothing about Sarah's "unrelated criminal history so undermined her credibility" that it implicated the agent in omitting that information from the warrant application. As to Haas’ sentence, the court concluded that the district court had improperly applied a two-level enhancement because the offense involved a minor under 12 years of age. There was no actual minor involved, and the USSG 2G2.1(b)(1) only allows for fictitious minors to trigger the enhancement if the part is played by a “law enforcement” officer – otherwise, the enhancement only applies when an actual minor is involved. Since Sarah was not a law enforcement officer, the enhancement did not apply in this case.
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