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Joe C. Tooley, Legal Digest Editor
Joe C. Tooley, Attorneys & Counselors, Rockwall, Texas
www.TooleyLaw.com 972-722-1058

TEXAS POLICE ASSOCIATION

LEGAL DIGEST

September-October 2019

AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is the goal of this submission to extract those portions of relevant appellate
opinions or the syllabus of the legal reporter which bear directly upon law enforcement methods
and provide guidance for officers on an operational level. Much of the information pertaining to
these cases is lifted verbatim from the court opinion or syllabus with independent analysis inserted
as appropriate. Due to clarity for training purposes, the distinction between quotes from the
opinions and inserted analysis is not always identified and legal citations within the opinion are
often omitted. Emphasis is placed upon reported decisions from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

SEARCH & SEIZURE: CELL PHONE and ages, and gathered information from other
SEARCH probation officers. Her investigation revealed
common links among the girls: Charles Fulton, Sr.
A jury convicted Charles Fulton, Sr. on four and a residence on Avenue L. In February and
counts of sex trafficking and one count of early March 2015, the Galveston Police
conspiracy. The most significant issue concerns a Department, in tandem with the FBI, began an
long-delayed search of his cellphone. Fulton also investigation. Police discovered that Fulton acted
makes arguments drawn from the Confrontation as the girls’ pimp, directing them to prostitution
and Grand Jury clauses of the Constitution, and he dates; providing them with food, condoms,
challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. We housing, and drugs; and having sex with some of
AFFIRM. them as young as 15.
In October 2014, a Galveston juvenile probation In May 2016, Fulton was indicted in the United
officer learned from the father of a juvenile she States District Court for the Southern District of
supervised that the girl was pictured in an online Texas on six counts of sex trafficking in violation
advertisement offering her services as an “escort” of 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a)–(b) (2015), with a different
– in effect, a prostitute. The probation officer minor victim identified in each count. Fulton was
began to investigate and saw that the house where also charged with a seventh count for conspiracy
the girl had been arrested was a location where to commit sex trafficking under 18 U.S.C. §
other young girls consistently were arrested. She 1594(c). He was found guilty after a jury trial on
began monitoring incoming police reports, spoke four of the substantive counts and on the
with some of the girls, compiled a list of names conspiracy count. The district court sentenced him

Sept./Oct. 2019 www.texaspoliceassociation.com • 866-997-8282 25