United States v. Nicholas Morgan-Derosier

── United States v. Nicholas Morgan-Derosier ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Date: June 04, 2026 Category: General United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 24-2204 ___________________________ United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier, also known as Nicholas Derosier, also known as Nicholas James Morgan Derosier, also known as Nicholas Morgan Derosier, also known as Nick James Morgan-Derosier Defendant - Appellant ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the District of North Dakota - Eastern ____________ Submitted: October 24, 2025 Filed: June 4, 2026 [Unpublished] ____________ Before GRUENDER, STRAS, and KOBES, Circuit Judges. ____________ PER CURIAM. After being indicted on federal child pornography charges, Nicholas Morgan- Derosier moved in the district court1 to suppress evidence from electronic devices discovered by local officers during a search of his residence. The magistrate judge recommended denying the motion, and the district court adopted that recommendation over Morgan-Derosier’s objection. Morgan-Derosier then entered a conditional guilty plea to seven counts in the indictment, preserving his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2). We affirm the denial of his motion. In August 2020, a detective with the Grand Forks, North Dakota Police Department initiated an investigation into Morgan-Derosier’s business activities after learning from multiple residents that he was operating landscaping and construction businesses in violation of a state court injunction prohibiting him from doing so. Based on interviews with several current and former employees, the detective learned that Morgan-Derosier was running his businesses from his residence and using various electronic devices to manage them. A search of banking records also confirmed that Morgan-Derosier had been operating in North Dakota after the date of the injunction. The detective then applied for a warrant authorizing a search of Morgan-Derosier’s residence for, among other things, any personal computing and electronic storage devices as well as the review of their contents for evidence of the “crimes of Contractor License Required, Construction Fraud, and violation of a Judicial Order in any form wherever they may be stored.” 2 A Grand 1 The Honorable Peter D. Welte, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of North Dakota, adopting the report and recommendations of the Honorable Alice R. Senechal, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of North Dakota. 2 The materials presented in the initial warrant application included a warrant, an exhibit, and an affidavit. The parties agree that the exhibit was incorporated into the warrant, but dispute whether we may consider the affidavit. Because probable cause is not at issue and the affidavit’s contents do not affect our ruling, we assume -2- Forks County district judge signed and issued the warrant. Although the issued warrant identified the types of electronic devices designated for search and seizure, it did not specify a relevant date range for the content on those devices. On September 15, 2020, local officers accompanied by a federal agent executed the warrant and conducted a search of Morgan-Derosier’s residence in the presence of his roommates. During the search, one of Morgan-Derosier’s roommates informed officers that Morgan-Derosier had previously rape