Opinion ID: 2086425
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The New York Investigation

Text: Acting upon a tip from Texas State Police, in late 1989 New York State Police began investigating an alleged gambling ring operating in Westchester and Bronx Counties. By April 1990, enough evidence had been gathered through surveillance and inspection of telephone records to persuade Bronx Supreme Court to issue an eavesdropping warrant for telephone lines assigned to the last-known addresses of participants of the ring. As a result of that phase of the investigation, several suspects were arrested and gambling equipment seized. Months later, on July 5, 1990, Westchester Supreme Court authorized placement of a PEN register  a device that recorded all outgoing telephone numbers  on the telephone of Todd Alpert, a suspected member of the ring, and on August 27, 1990, the same court signed an eavesdropping warrant for Alpert's telephone. Among the calls intercepted were numerous conversations between Alpert and defendant concerning gambling. The authorities then secured warrants authorizing search of eight separate locations, including defendant's home, which were executed simultaneously on September 10, 1990. At defendant's home, the police seized shopping bags filled with packets of gambling records, each marked with dates between September 1989 and April 1990, as well as two locked metal boxes. One box  for which defendant produced the key  contained $70,000 in cash. Additional documents were determined to be defendant's daily records of bets taken, and some entries corresponded to conversations intercepted pursuant to the wiretap authorized on August 27th. Defendant was arrested immediately. Three days later, on September 13, the wiretap was terminated and sealed by the issuing Judge. The People filed a felony complaint charging defendant with seven instances of promoting gambling based on bets received and placed during a court-ordered eavesdropping warrant, during the period of August 27, 1990 through September 10, 1990. A Grand Jury indicted defendant on January 24, 1991, additionally charging defendant with possession of records on sporting events during January and September of 1990. Defendant was arraigned on this indictment, No. 91-0038, on February 1, 1991. On March 12, 1991, defendant moved to suppress all evidence seized and all intercepted communications on the ground that the Westchester County wiretap warrant and affidavits were not turned over to defendant within 15 days of arraignment. The People conceded their failure to comply with the statutory mandate of CPL 700.70, and themselves moved for dismissal of the indictment since, without the wiretap evidence, they lacked sufficient evidence to go forward with prosecution of the indictment. On May 3, 1991, the court entered an order of dismissal in the interest of justice pursuant to CPL 210.40 (1). Based upon presentation of still more gambling records seized from defendant's house on September 10, 1990, the People secured a second indictment, No. 91-0650. The first count of this indictment was identical to the first count of indictment No. 91-0038, charging first degree possession of gambling records on September 10, 1990. Additional counts charged various gambling offenses on 35 days between September 25, 1989 and April 1, 1990. [1] At his arraignment on April 19, 1991, defendant received copies of the Westchester warrants and supporting affidavits, which included the April 23, 1990 Bronx wiretap warrant. Defendant moved to dismiss the second indictment on several grounds, including that dismissal of the first indictment had resolved the charges, and that failure to give timely notice of wiretap evidence in the first prosecution precluded use of that evidence and all evidence derived from it in any subsequent prosecutions. A hearing was ordered to determine whether the People possessed probable cause as to the April 23, 1990 Bronx eavesdropping warrant.