Opinion ID: 272895
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Search and seizure objections.

Text: 39 We now turn to a number of objections relating to evidence allegedly obtained by illegal searches and seizures, both insofar as these may affect Jones' convictions which we have thus far found no sufficient reason to disturb, and as they may recur on the new trial of the other defendants. 40 A search of Guzzo's home, pursuant to warrant issued on July 8, led to the discovery of the gun stolen from the Hillsdale Post Office. Before the trial, Guzzo, who was represented by the same lawyer as Mulhearn, moved for suppression of the fruits of the search on the ground that the affidavit of Inspector Pallantios had overstated his acquantance with the informer on whose representations the warrant was to be issued. The judge denied the motion, finding the statements in the affidavit to be true. This ruling is challenged in the face of a serious question whether objection was properly preserved by Guzzo's motion to suppress. 20 Deeming it best to deal with the merits not only to dispel any doubts with respect to Jones' convictions but to resolve any uncertainty on retrial, we hold the evidence was properly admitted, on two independent grounds. None of the appellants was entitled to object to the receipt of objects seized in Guzzo's home which were not owned or possessed by him and had only evidentiary significance against him; and, assuming as we do that, although sufficient on its face, Pallantios' affidavit can be attacked for known untruths, it was not so defective as to invalidate the warrant. 41 The Supreme Court's most recent comprehensive statement on the subject of 'standing' to invoke the rule excluding real evidence obtained by illegal search and seizure is Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 261, 80 S.Ct. 725, 731, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960). The Court there said, through Mr. Justice Frankfurter: 42 'In order to qualify as a 'person aggrieved by an unlawful search and seizure' one must have been a victim of a search or seizure, one against whom the search was directed, as distinguished from one who claims prejudice only through the use of evidence gathered as a consequence of a search or seizure directed at someone else. Rule 41(e) applies the general principle that a party will not be heard to claim a constitutional protection unless he 'belongs to the class for whose sake the constitutional protection is given.' Hatch v. Reardon, 204 U.S. 152, 160 (27 S.Ct. 188, 190, 51 L.Ed. 415). The restrictions upon searches and seizures were obviously designed for protection against official invasion of privacy and the security of property. They are not exclusionary provisions against the admission of kinds of evidence deemed inherently unreliable or prejudicial. The exclusion in federal trials of evidence otherwise competent but gathered by federal officials in violation of the Fourth Amendment is a means for making effective the protection of privacy.' 43 Consistent with that view the Court has held that a defendant has standing to object not only to a search of premises owned or leased by him but also to the search of premises where he was present by consent of the owner or possessor, Jones v. United States, supra, 362 U.S. at 265-267, 80 S.Ct. 725; to the seizure of property for the illegal possession of which he is charged, Jones v. United States, supra, 362 U.S. at 263, 80 S.Ct. 725; and to the seizure of property owned or possessed by him and stored in the premises of another to which he had access, United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 72 S.Ct. 93, 96 L.Ed. 59 (1951). The instant case does not come within either the general language of the quoted passage or these specifications. The gun stolen from the Hillsdale Post Office remained the property of the United States; the thieves abandoned its possession to Guzzo; none of them was present in Guzzo's home at the time of the search; and none was charged with an offense for mere possession of the gun. Appellants' broader position that if any defendant is entitled to suppression, erroneous denial of a motion on his behalf is error as to all, finds its sole Supreme Court support in a passage in Mr. Justice Douglas' opinion in McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 456, 69 S.Ct. 191, 93 L.Ed. 153 (1948), dealing with the co-defendant Washington. How this opinion was 'of the Court,' as the reporter describes it, is not easy to understand, see Rosencranz v. United States, 334 F.2d 738, 741 (1 Cir. 1964) (concurring opinion of Judge Aldrich), since only Justices Frankfurter, Murphy and Rutledge joined in it. 21 Mr. Justice Frankfurter also joined in Mr. Justice Jackson's concurring opinion which went on the ground taken as one basis for the later decision in Jones, that as a guest on the premises Washington could 'expect the shelter of the rooftree he is under against criminal intrusion.' 335 U.S. at 461, 69 S.Ct. at 196. Mr. Justice Frankfurter's subsequent formulation for the whole Court in the Jones case seems inconsistent with Mr. Justice Douglas' rationale in McDonald, of which the Court made no mention in Jones despite citation by the parties. The portion of Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 492 (1963), upholding the admission against Wong of the narcotics seized from Yee as a result of the illegal arrest of Toy, despite the parties' citation of McDonald, is likewise inconsistent with a rule that if evidence is subject to suppression at the instance of one defendant, it must be open to challenge by all. The values that the Fourth Amendment protects are sufficiently advanced by excluding the results of illegal searches and seizures at the behest of 'victims' in the broad sense the Supreme Court has given that term; we see no important purpose to be served by holding that a thief who has left evidence of his crime on the premises of a confederate is subrogated to the latter's right to complain of a search and seizure, so that he may exercise this although the confederate has not elected to do so or to pursue an election once made. See United States v. Lee Wan Nam, 274 F.2d 863 (2 Cir.) cert. denied, 363 U.S. 803, 80 S.Ct. 1236, 4 L.Ed.2d 1147 (1960); United States v. Serrano, 317 F.2d 356 (2 Cir. 1963); Staples v. United States, 320 F.2d 817, 820-821 (5 Cir. 1963); United States v. Grosso, 358 F.2d 154, 161 (3 Cir. 1966); Diaz-Rosendo v. United States, 357 F.2d 124, 130-134 (9 Cir. 1966) (in banc). But see Rosencranz v. United States, 334 F.2d 738 (1 Cir. 1964), 356 F.2d 310 (1 Cir. 1966); Nelson v. United States, 93 U.S.App.D.C. 14, 208 F.2d 505, 514, cert. denied, 346 U.S. 827, 74 S.Ct. 48, 98 L.Ed. 352 (1953). See also Case Note, Search and Seizure: Admissibility of Illegally Acquired Evidence Against Third Parties, 66 Colum.L.Rev. 400 (1966);Maguire, Evidence of Guilt 214-16 (1959). Indeed, we perceive no reason why, even if an aggrieved person has secured suppression to which he is entitled, the evidence should be forever clothed with immunity from subpoena in the prosecution of another who was without standing to obtain this. 44 Alternatively we find the criticism of the affidavit unduly technical. Inspector Pallantios cited information 'by a previously reliable confidential informant, who is known to your deponent and who has given information to your deponent in the course of his official investigations on at least two prior occasions and which information has proven to be reliable.' The appellants' insistence that in fact Pallantios had met the informant Kuhle only on the preceding day, and that on the two prior occasions the information had been given to Inspector Shatzel stresses form at the expense of substance. The statement that the informant was 'known' to Palantios was wholly accurate; although Pallantios had not met Kuhle until the day before, the meeting lasted thirty hours-- quite long enough for Pallantios to 'know' him. And Shatzel testified that on the two 'prior occasions,' when information given by Kuhle led to arrests and the discovery of stolen property, he kept Pallantios informed of what he was learning and repeatedly confirmed the reliability of the informant. Under these circumstances, where two government inspectors were working closely together in related investigations, it can hardly be considered false to regard the information as given to both officers, and any failure to make the separation of responsibility crystal clear cannot conceivably have influenced the commissioner to issue a warrant he would otherwise have denied. Cf. United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965). 45 The next challenge is directed at a seizure incident to an allegedly illegal arrest of Guzzo. Along with the warrant to search Guzzo's house, the commissioner signed a warrant authorizing Guzzo's arrest for the transportation and sale of stamps stolen from the Paramus Post Office. The arrest warrant was based on a complaint in which Inspector Pallantios gave as the source of his information and the grounds of his belief both his own investigation of the burglary and 'an oral statement given to your deponent by a previously reliable confidential informant'; the statement was alleged to have related that Mulhearn, Jones and confederates perpetrated the crime, and that they 'together with the defendant NICK GUZZO, who knew said stamps were stolen, transported said stolen stamps    from New Jersey to Brooklyn' where they sold them to Guarnieri for $9,500. Pursuant to the warrant Guzzo was arrested in his car, which was searched then and there; the search revealed the burglary tools Guarnieri had made available to Kuhle and the others. The claim pressed by all the appellants except DeLutro is that the complaint was insufficient, the arrest thus invalid, the search thus illegal, and the evidence thus excludible against all of them. 22 46 Our views as to standing rule out all challenges save Guarnieri's. Assuming that his ownership of the tools gives him standing, see United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 72 S.Ct. 93, 96 L.Ed. 59 (1951), we find his attack without merit. The complaint of Inspector Pallantios sufficiently alleged a basis for crediting the hearsay statement in attesting to the previous reliability of the informant, see United States v. Freeman, 358 F.2d 459 (2 Cir. 1966). And though by itself it may have failed to provide 'some of the underlying circumstances from which the informant concluded' that his information was correct, Aguilar v. State of Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 114, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964); United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 109, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965), any such deficiency was effectively cured by the contemporaneous application for the search warrant dealing with the same crime, alleging that the informant had observed the burglar's tools and gun stolen from the Hillsdale Post Office in the possession of Guzzo and the other defendants named in the complaint. See United States v. Markis, 352 F.2d 860, 864 (2 Cir. 1965). Finally, although Judge Mishler did not find it necessary to go into the subject, it is patent there was ample basis for the officers' believing that Guzzo had committed a felony and making the arrest without a warrant; appellants seem unaware of our holding that a defect in a warrant does not vitiate an arrest made under such circumstances as here if probable cause in fact existed. United States v. Hall, 348 F.2d 837, 841-842 (2 Cir.) cert. denied, 382 U.S. 910, 86 S.Ct. 250, 15 L.Ed.2d 161 (1965). 47 A third attack, by Bozza, Mulhearn, Jones and Pizzo, is directed to the search of Kuhle's house by New Jersey police which led to the discovery of the tools used in the first four burglaries. Disregarding Bozza's contention for lack of standing but again assuming that appellants' co-ownership of the tools gives this under United States v. Jeffers, supra, 342 U.S. 48, 72 S.Ct. 93, 96 L.Ed. 59, and also-- which is doubtful at least as to Mulhearn and Jones-- that proper objection was made, we find that the search and seizure were valid. 48 The warrant for the search of Kuhle's house was issued by a New Jersey judge on the affidavit of Sergeant Fowler, a state police officer. Fowler swore that he had investigated the burglary of a New Jersey motor vehicle agency from which two validating machines, numerous blank forms, and a quantity of inspection stickers had been stolen; that he had questioned a William Brown who reported having purchased two stolen drivers' licenses from Kuhle that were found in his possession and who also admitted the purchase from Kuhle of ten checks, likewise found in his possession, stolen from a coal company in the same county; and that this gave Fowler reason to believe that Kuhle possessed stolen property in his house in violation of New Jersey law. Not questioning that the state judge would have had probable cause if Brown also had made an affidavit, appellants contend it was fatal that Fowler's affidavit did not state that Brown was a previously reliable informer. Such a recital, however, is only one way of validating hearsay used to obtain a search warrant-- not a ritual that must be invariably observed even when the circumstances render it inappropriate. The constitutional requirement is that there be 'substantial basis' for the magistrate's concluding that an offense was being committed, Rugendorf v. United States, 376 U.S. 528, 533, 84 S.Ct. 825, 11 L.Ed.2d 887 (1964); that, where the application is based on the statement of another person, 'a substantial basis for crediting the hearsay' be presented, Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 269, 80 S.Ct. 725, 735, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960); and that to this end the magistrate must be informed of 'some of the underlying circumstances from which the officer concluded that the informant    was 'credible' or his information 'reliable, Aguilar v. State of Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 114, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 1514, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964). The identity of the licenses found on Brown with those known by Fowler to have been stolen was a far stronger reason for believing Brown's story than a record of an informer's previous reliability; assuming as we do that Brown was not an informer in the usual sense, it is hard to see what more Fowler could have presented if Brown's equivocal status made him unwilling to swear to an affidavit. The Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures in not to be read as imposing burdens on the police beyond their power to meet. 49