Opinion ID: 329571
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Suggestion of Dismissal.

Text: 14 After the appeals before us were filed, Count III of new indictment No. LV 74-10, in the District of Nevada, was severed and transferred to the Central District of California at Meier's request. Counts I and II were retained for trial in the District of Nevada. It was agreed that the proceedings in Nevada on the second new indictment, No. LV 74-9, and the earlier August, 1973, indictment would be held in abeyance pending the outcome of the LV 74-10 cases. 15 On May 17, 1974, Meier filed a motion to suppress and for return of property in the Nevada LV 74-10 prosecution. The motion was based on the same grounds, and was directed at the same evidence and property, as are involved in these appeals. The trial judge denied the motion and this court later denied Meier's petition for writ of mandamus and/or prohibition. Meier v. United States District Court, District of Nevada, September 12, 1974, No. 74-2650. On October 17, 1974, Meier filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court. 16 Meanwhile, the Nevada LV 74-10 case was set for trial on December 2, 1974. Meier failed to appear. The trial judge ordered his bail forfeited, issued a warrant for his arrest, and reset the case for January 3, 1975. Meier, who currently resides in British Columbia, again failed to appear. He also failed to appear for a hearing in the Central District of California case on January 27, 1975. There too he was declared a fugitive and a warrant for his arrest was issued. 17 In the meantime, the Supreme Court had denied the petition for certiorari with the notation See Molinaro v. New Jersey, 396 U.S. 365 (90 S.Ct. 498, 24 L.Ed.2d 586) (1970), 419 U.S. 1116, 95 S.Ct. 796, 42 L.Ed.2d 815 (1975). In Molinaro the Court dismissed a criminal appeal because the defendant was a fugitive. The complaints in the cases before us here are functionally, but perhaps not technically, the equivalents of motions to suppress evidence and for the return of property under Rules 41(e) and 41(f) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. They differ from such motions in only two respects: Suckling, neither a defendant nor a governmental employee, is named as a defendant, and the proceedings were arguably commenced in advance of indictment (assuming the dubious proposition, advanced by Meier, that his suits are unrelated to the August, 1973, indictment). While it is manifest that these cases are important only in relation to the pending criminal prosecutions, the jurisdictional basis for such preindictment motions, and their proper characterization as civil or criminal proceedings, have always been somewhat hazy. See, e.g., Hoffritz v. United States, 9 Cir., 1956, 240 F.2d 109, 112 & n. 8; Rodgers v. United States, S.D.Cal., 158 F. Supp. 670, 675-78, petition for mandamus and/or prohibition denied, 9 Cir., 1958, id. at 684 note. Thus, while it might be appropriate to dismiss Meier's appeals under the Molinaro rationale, we elect not to do so. 18