Opinion ID: 449467
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Constitutionality of Title III and the Wiretap Order as Applied.

Text: 30 Because appellants were situated differently at the time of the interceptions, we shall analyze their claims separately. 31
32 Diaz placed calls from the ATU telephones. He argues that their interception, pursuant to the others as yet unknown provision of the wiretap order, violates the fourth amendment because it effectively converted the order into a general warrant. In support of this contention, Diaz points out that the ATU telephones were at least quasi-public and available without restriction between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. to the 59 inmates housed in the ATU, few of whom were named or otherwise implicated in its investigation. Consequently, he argues, the order issued by Judge Holder amounted to a general warrant because it permitted the interception of calls made by ATU residents, including himself, not specifically named in the order as targets of the investigation. 33 The fourth amendment proscribes searches and seizures that are unreasonable and also mandates that a warrant particularly [describe] the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. See United States v. Young, 745 F.2d 733, 759 (2nd Cir.1984). Yet, we cannot conclude that the wiretap order here, which complied with the detailed requirements spelled out in Title III, amounted to a general warrant. See Kahn, 415 U.S. at 155 n. 15, 94 S.Ct. at 984 n. 15; see also United States v. Donovan, 429 U.S. 413, 427 n. 15, 97 S.Ct. 658, 668 n. 15, 50 L.Ed.2d 652 (1977). 34 The record reveals that the second reported telephone call intercepted on the very first day of monitoring was made by Diaz and that the ensuing conversation, although in code, could reasonably have been construed to relate to narcotics trafficking within the prison. Further, a call made the next day by Diaz to Lopez in Miami tied Diaz to Cagnina, who was named in the application as a confidant of Inglese and in the order as a possible interceptee, and also implicated Diaz in narcotics trafficking being conducted both inside and outside the prison. 35 Interception of these two narcotics-related calls did not violate either the statute or the fourth amendment. At the outset of a wiretap, surveillance under an order that authorizes interception of calls of others as yet unknown is not strictly limited to only those who are specifically named in the authorizing order either as probable violators or as possible interceptees; this is particularly so where an investigation, such as this one, is directed at a wide-spread narcotics conspiracy. See Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. at 140, 98 S.Ct. at 1724; United States v. Manfredi, 488 F.2d 588, 599 (2d Cir.1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 936, 94 S.Ct. 2651, 41 L.Ed.2d 240 (1974); United States v. James, 494 F.2d at 1019. The agents are required only to make reasonable efforts to minimize their interceptions in light of all the relevant circumstances. Scott, 436 U.S. at 139-41, 98 S.Ct. at 1724-25; James, 494 F.2d at 1018-19. Consequently, in the absence of any claim that the agents failed to minimize their interceptions, the government's interception of these two calls was not unreasonable. 36 Moreover, these two intercepted telephone calls sufficiently tied Diaz to the narcotics trafficking described in the wiretap order to justify continued monitoring of Diaz's subsequent telephone calls. From these and the subsequent calls it quickly became clear that Diaz was one of the others as yet unknown who were engaging with Inglese in narcotics operations; therefore, it was reasonable for the government to continue to monitor and intercept his telephone calls during the remainder of the period authorized by the original order. Except as forbidden fruits of interceptions under the first order, appellants do not challenge the evidence obtained in the extension orders, because there the government did include Diaz as a specific target of the investigation, and probable cause for his involvement in the narcotics trafficking under investigation had been firmly established by the earlier intercepts. 37 In short, the government's course of conduct toward Diaz was reasonable. The fact that these two telephones were accessible to many other inmates does not change the result. The wiretap order authorized interception of only narcotics and related conversations of certain individuals, some of them unnamed, and the government's interceptions appear to have been carefully circumscribed. Cf. United States v. Rizzo, 492 F.2d 443, 447 (2d Cir.1974) (where wiretapped pay phones were not used by the general public but were being used exclusively by defendant and his associates for their personal benefit there can be no claim that the public's privacy was inadequately protected). 38 Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 100 S.Ct. 338, 62 L.Ed.2d 238 (1979), relied on heavily by Diaz, does not persuade us otherwise. In Ybarra, information provided by an informant gave the police probable cause to believe that the bartender at a local tavern was selling heroin from behind the bar. Based on this information the judge issued a search warrant authorizing a search of the tavern and the bartender. While executing the warrant, the police conducted a pat-down of all the patrons, characterized as a cursory search for weapons. Id. at 88, 100 S.Ct. at 341. As a result, the police discovered on Ybarra a cigarette pack that contained packets of heroin. Ybarra's conviction of possessing the heroin was reversed by the Supreme Court, which concluded that the seizure of the heroin packets violated the fourth and fourteenth amendments, based on the fact that the authorities had no reason to believe that any person found on the premises of the tavern, aside from the bartender who was named in the warrant, would be violating the law. Id. at 90-92, 100 S.Ct. at 341-343. 39 In support of his claim here, Diaz seizes upon language in Ybarra's majority opinion which explains that [w]here the standard is probable cause, a search or seizure of a person must be supported by probable cause particularized with respect to that person. This requirement cannot be undercut or avoided by simply pointing to the fact that coincidentally there exists probable cause to search or seize another or to search the premises where the person may happen to be. Id. at 91, 100 S.Ct. at 342. 40 Without passing on the validity of this argument where there is probable cause to believe that others as yet unknown will be committing the offense at the place to be searched, which the Court reserved in Ybarra, 444 U.S. at 92 n. 4, 100 S.Ct. at 342 n. 4, appellants' point is inapposite here. As the Supreme Court has explained,  'the specific content and incidents of th[e] right [to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures] must be shaped by the context in which it is asserted.'  Wyman v. James, 400 U.S. 309, 318, 91 S.Ct. 381, 386, 27 L.Ed.2d 408 (1971) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 9, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1873, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). The search conducted in this case took place in a prison as distinguished from the public bar in Ybarra, and as noted above, the expectations of privacy of prisoners are considerably diminished from those of ordinary citizens. Hudson v. Palmer, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 3194, 3200-02, 82 L.Ed.2d 393 (1984). Consequently, the actions of the agents in this case, acting under a proper wiretap order, did not violate the fourth amendment rights of Diaz. Our conclusion in this respect is strengthened by the fact that a sign over the telephone indicated that calls were subject to being monitored. 41 If the government had failed to minimize its interceptions, this might be a closer case, for in situations such as this one, the government must be especially scrupulous, as it was here, in its minimization efforts. See United States v. James, 494 F.2d at 1020. In any event, defendants have raised no minimization claim, and, absent any other specific challenge to the wiretap order or to the government's conduct in carrying it out, we cannot conclude that Diaz's fourth amendment rights were violated here. 42
43 The claims of appellants Lopez and Figueroa rest on somewhat different grounds. They were recipients of calls placed by Diaz; thus they were not inside the prison at the time their telephone conversations were intercepted, and the concerns surrounding the wiretapping of two quasi-public prison telephones used by 59 inmates do not apply to them. Moreover, they were conversing with prisoners whose calls were covered by the wiretap order, and the reference to others as yet unknown in the first order included individuals outside the prison such as Lopez and Figueroa. 44 As to Lopez, almost all of his conversations with Diaz occurred after the first extension order in which both Diaz and Lopez were named as targets. The few conversations that occurred during the period of the original order which named neither of them were properly intercepted for the same reasons discussed above in connection with Diaz. Significantly, the second of Diaz's monitored calls was to Lopez (AMATO) and by itself established reasonable justification for further monitoring. Furthermore, the government need not establish probable cause as to all participants in a conversation. If probable cause has been shown as to one such participant, the statements of the other participants may be intercepted if pertinent to the investigation. United States v. Tortorello, 480 F.2d at 775. 45 As to Figueroa, since all of his intercepted conversations with Diaz occurred after Diaz had been specifically named in the wiretap order, the interception of his conversations did not violate the fourth amendment. Id. 46