Opinion ID: 430880
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Attacks on the Sufficiency of the Procedures Used in This Case

Text: 53 Defendants argue that even if the Massachusetts wiretap statute is facially sufficient, the warrants issued in this case are void for failure to comply with the procedures required by the state statute, the federal statute, or both. Specifically, defendants allege (1) that the affidavits accompanying the warrant applications failed to demonstrate that normal investigative procedures had been tried and had failed; (2) that the affidavits accompanying the applications failed to establish probable cause to issue the warrants; (3) that the warrants allowed interception of conversations by people not named in the warrants, in violation of Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 272, Sec. 99 I; and (4) that the investigating officers returned the warrants and tapes eight days after the warrants had expired rather than the seven days required by Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 272, Sec. 99 M. 54 The district court, in its memorandum accompanying the order denying defendants' motion to suppress, answered all of these complaints completely and correctly. Defendants have added nothing to their original arguments that prompts us to engage in a lengthy reconsideration of these issues. We make a few additional points here to aid the parties in understanding why we consider the district court's disposition correct. 55 We note first that we have recently reaffirmed the standard we adopted in United States v. Scibelli, 549 F.2d 222 (1st Cir.1977), for reviewing the sufficiency of wiretap applications. United States v. Southard, 700 F.2d 1 (1st Cir.1983). It is not our province to engage in de novo review of an application; instead, we test it in a practical and commonsense manner to determine whether the facts which it sets forth are minimally adequate to support the findings made by the issuing judge. Id. at 28, citing Scibelli at 226. The applications for the wiretaps in this case easily satisfy the criteria we identified in Scibelli and Southard. 56 We also note that defendants' challenge to the probable cause finding depends in large measure on their charge that the information of confidential informants failed to meet the tests for reliability established by the Supreme Court in Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 413, 89 S.Ct. 584, 587, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969). The Supreme Court has recently abandoned rigid adherence to the two-pronged Aguilar/Spinelli test and has adopted a more flexible totality of the circumstances test for determining whether a confidential informant's tip is reliable. Illinois v. Gates, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). Again, we think the warrant applications in this case easily meet the current standard. 57 Finally, we observe that we have no need to rule on defendants' arguments that Sec. 99 I of the Massachusetts statute establishes a standard more stringent than that of Title III for intercepting the communications of persons not identified in the warrant, and that an interception made in violation of Sec. 99 I cannot be admitted in a federal proceeding even though it complies with the requirements of the federal statute. We agree with the district court that the original warrant, if read in its entirety, meets the standard of Sec. 99 I. It allows the conversations of unnamed conspirators to be intercepted only during brief spot checks and provides that the investigating officers shall not expand the scope of their investigation to include these conspirators unless the officers first procure an amended warrant from the issuing judge.