Colorado Conviction for Possessing Child Porn Is An Aggravated Felony

Serrato-Navarrete v. Holder, 2015 WL 1037309 (3/11/15) (unpub'd) - The 10th holds a violation of Colorado's child-porn-possession statute is an aggravated felony. An offense is an aggravated felony if it is child porn as described in 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B), which refers to depictions of a minor "engaging in" sexually explicit conduct. The Colorado statute criminalizes possession of material depicting a minor "engaging in, participating in, observing, or being used for" sexually explicit conduct. The 10th finds the verbs beyond "engaging in," such as "observing" are superfluous since they just describe the same things that are included in the "engaging in" in § 2252. In particular the 10th says a minor observing explicit sexual conduct is being "involved in and associated with" that activity, which is what "engaging in" means.