Opinion ID: 75633
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: cuni's motion to suppress wiretap evidence

Text: 40 The first issue that we will discuss is whether certain evidence obtained from court-authorized wiretaps should have been suppressed by the trial court. Although several of the defendants filed motions to suppress in the district court, only Appellant Oscar Cuni presses this issue on appeal. He argues that the wiretap evidence should have been suppressed on Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S. Ct. 2674 (1978), grounds because the affidavits used to obtain court authorization for the wiretaps contained material misrepresentations and omissions. 41 The affidavits at issue were made by DEA Special Agent Lee Lucas in support of eight different applications for wiretaps, two of which were on cell phones possessed by Cuni. As grounds for probable cause, these affidavits explained that Francisco Novaton had been arrested for various drug-related offenses in the past, and that there was no record of his having been employed in the previous two years. The affidavits also stated that the video camera installed outside of the Novaton residence recorded vehicles coming and going frequently from the Novaton residence during the day and evening, and various individuals with past narcotics convictions, including Cuni, frequenting the residence. 42 Furthermore, Lucas' affidavits contained information purportedly received from four confidential sources which confirmed narcotics activity at the Novaton residence. The affidavits explained that court-authorized trap and trace and pen register equipment indicated that the Novatons made or received over 2,500 telephone calls in the preceding month, including numerous calls to Juan Ignacio Novaton, an individual with an extensive drug-related criminal history, and to Touchdown Realty, a business suspected of having narcotics connections. 43 Finally, the affidavits indicated that two Miami police officers, Lopez and Reynaldo Rodriguez, were suspected of facilitating the drug operation. The video camera recorded the frequent arrival and departure of police cars at the residence, and showed that police cars frequently drove past the house and slowed down. Also, the Novaton residence had received telephone calls from a Miami Police Department telephone adjacent to Lopez's office. 44 After Cuni and several other defendants filed their motion to suppress on Franks grounds, a magistrate judge conducted an evidentiary hearing over the course of eleven days. Cuni and the others attacked the information provided by and about the confidential sources cited in the affidavits. In particular, Cuni pointed out that Agent Lucas failed to disclose that one of the three confidential sources who provided information about Cuni had been married to Cuni's wife, was extremely jealous of Cuni, and had engaged in stalking. Furthermore, Cuni argued that two of the informants were business rivals of his. Cuni also argued that Agent Lucas' affidavits were insufficient because they did not disclose adequate information about the informants' criminal histories, including the fact that one of the informants had been convicted of lying to the police. Finally, Cuni argued that Agent Lucas' affidavits misrepresented Cuni's criminal history as extensive and had erroneously attributed to him a prior cocaine conviction, when in fact that prior conviction involved heroin. 45 Following the hearing, the magistrate judge recommended that the motion to suppress be denied. She found that the information provided by the confidential sources was sufficiently corroborated by other evidence, and that any omissions concerning animus on the part of the informants, benefits provided to the informants, or the prior criminal record of the informants were immaterial. The magistrate judge noted that a reviewing magistrate is aware that confidential informants often are characterized by deal-making, [bad] motive and suffer from generally unsavory character, and that, even in the absence of allegations to that effect in an affidavit, courts take those factors into consideration in determining whether probable cause exists. Furthermore, the magistrate judge found that the description of Cuni's criminal history as extensive was not inaccurate and that the mischaracterization of Cuni's conviction as cocaine-related, when it was actually heroin-related, was immaterial. The district court adopted the magistrate judge's report and recommendation, agreed with each of her findings, and denied the motions to suppress. 46 Following his conviction, Cuni moved for a new trial and renewed his motion to suppress the wiretap evidence used against him. He reasserted the grounds contained in his pretrial suppression motion, and also argued that trial testimony and post-trial statements from certain of the informants cited in Agent Lucas' affidavits supported his motion. In particular, Cuni submitted affidavits from investigators and attorneys for Cuni and Novaton who stated that two of the informants had agreed to speak with them after the trial, and that those two informants denied having provided much of the information attributed to them in Agent Lucas' affidavits and stated that little if any of the information provided to the agents was based on their personal knowledge. 47 The magistrate judge conducted a three-day Franks hearing in response to the post-trial motion, after which she recommended denying Cuni's motion. The district court adopted the magistrate judge's report and recommendation and denied the motion for a new trial. 48 On appeal, Cuni contends that the district court erred by not suppressing the wiretap evidence against him for four reasons. First, he argues that the affidavits contained material misrepresentations concerning the past cooperation and reliability of the informants. Agent Lucas' affidavits contained the following representation (almost identical in all of the affidavits): 49 [The law enforcement officers conducting the investigation] have received information from four (4) separate confidential sources (CSs) pertaining to a narcotics smuggling distribution organization . . . . In addition, the information provided by the CSs has proven reliable in the past. . . . CSs information has been corroborated by surveillance and police record checks. 50 Cuni asserts that this statement is false because three of the four informants had not cooperated with the police in the past. He argues that the misrepresentation must have been deliberate because the wiretap applications were filed between October 19, 1993 and December 1, 1993, while Agent Lucas testified that two of the informants only began providing information in September and October 1993. 51 Second, Cuni argues that the statement attributed to one of the informants was contradicted by that individual's testimony at trial. The affidavit stated that the informant had observed Cuni unloading boxes from a van at the Novaton residence under the supervision of a police officer. The informant retreated from that statement during his trial testimony. 52 Third, Agent Lucas' affidavit, dated November 16, 1993, supporting the application for a wiretap on one of Cuni's cell phones erroneously represented that Cuni had a prior conviction for cocaine trafficking, although the previous conviction actually related to heroin. 53 Finally, Agent Lucas' affidavits omitted facts concerning the criminal histories of the informants, including the fact that one of the informants had previously been convicted of lying to a police officer. Based on these alleged misrepresentations or omissions, Cuni argues that the district court erred by not suppressing the wiretap evidence. 54 We review the district court's findings of fact on a motion to suppress only for clear error, but review its application of law to those facts de novo. United States v. Jackson, 120 F.3d 1226, 1228 (11th Cir. 1997). In the present case, the district court's findings of fact were not clearly erroneous, and the court did not err in denying Cuni's motions to suppress. 55 In Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S. Ct. 2674 (1978), the Supreme Court set out the standards for considering an attack on the veracity of an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant. The Court stated that: 56 There is, of course, a presumption of validity with respect to the affidavit supporting the search warrant. To mandate an evidentiary hearing, the challenger's attack must be more than conclusory and must be supported by more than a mere desire to cross-examine. There must be allegations of deliberate falsehood or of reckless disregard for the truth, and those allegations must be accompanied by an offer of proof. They should point out specifically the portion of the warrant affidavit that is claimed to be false; and they should be accompanied by a statement of supporting reasons. Affidavits or sworn or otherwise reliable statements of witnesses should be furnished, or their absence satisfactorily explained. Allegations of negligence or innocent mistake are insufficient. The deliberate falsity or reckless disregard whose impeachment is permitted . . . is only that of the affiant, not of any nongovernmental informant. Finally, if these requirements are met, and if, when material that is the subject of the alleged falsity or reckless disregard is set to one side, there remains sufficient content in the warrant affidavit to support a finding of probable cause, no hearing is required. On the other hand, if the remaining content is insufficient, the defendant is entitled, under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, to his hearing. Whether he will prevail at that hearing is, of course, another issue. 57 Franks, 438 U.S. at 171-72, 98 S. Ct. at 2684-85. In the event that at that hearing the allegation of perjury or reckless disregard is established by the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence, and, with the affidavit's false material set to one side, the affidavit's remaining content is insufficient to establish probable cause, the search warrant must be voided and the fruits of the search excluded to the same extent as if probable cause was lacking on the face of the affidavit. Id. at 156, 98 S. Ct. at 2676. 58 Of the four alleged deficiencies with Agent Lucas' affidavits, three involve affirmative misrepresentations and one involves omissions. In order to be entitled to relief, Cuni must carry his burden of proving (1) that the alleged misrepresentations or omissions were knowingly or recklessly made by Agent Lucas, and (2) that the result of excluding the alleged misrepresentations and including the alleged omissions would have been a lack of probable cause for issuance of the warrants. United States v. Jenkins, 901 F.2d 1075, 1080 (11th Cir. 1990). Cuni has failed to carry that burden. 59 The first alleged misrepresentation pointed to by Cuni relates to the statement in the affidavits to the effect that the four informants who provided information in support of probable cause had proven reliable in the past. Cuni asserts, and the government does not dispute in its briefs to us, that three of the four informants had never before cooperated with law enforcement officials. Cuni argues that this misrepresentation was inherently false and made with reckless disregard for the truth in light of Agent Lucas' subsequent testimony about when the informants began cooperating. The government responds that just because the informants had not cooperated in the past does not mean that the information they provided in connection with this case was unreliable. It also maintains that the misrepresentation was not material to the district court's finding of probable cause and that Cuni did not show that the representation was knowingly or deliberately included in the affidavit. 60 We find troubling Agent Lucas' apparent misrepresentations concerning the past cooperation of the informants involved in this case. Although the government maintains that there was an absence of proof concerning the agent's deliberateness or recklessness in making the misrepresentations, it is unclear how Agent Lucas could have made such statements of an affirmative character for which there was no basis without having acted either deliberately or recklessly. Accordingly, we will assume that this was a deliberate or reckless misrepresentation. 61 However, Cuni's argument stumbles on the second-step of the Franks test. The Supreme Court made it clear in Franks that in order to be entitled to relief a defendant must show not only that misrepresentations or omissions were intentionally or recklessly made, but also that, absent those misrepresentations or omissions, probable cause would have been lacking. That is the test of materiality, and materiality is essential no matter how deliberate or reckless the misrepresentations were. 62 We do not believe that the statements concerning the past reliability of the informants, when viewed in the context of all the information contained in the affidavits, were material. Agent Lucas' affidavits contained extensive factual detail which was independent of the informants' statements and that supported probable cause. Although the magistrate judge did not directly address the alleged misrepresentations about past use of the informants, she did discuss whether there was sufficient corroboration of the informants' statements, and found there was. The district court agreed and adopted the magistrate judge's recommendation, and those findings of corroboration are not clearly erroneous. Under these circumstances, even assuming Agent Lucas' statements concerning the informants' past reliability were deliberately false and subtracting those statements from the affidavits, there was still ample showing of probable cause in the affidavits. 63 Cuni's second argument, that the statement attributed to one of the informants was contradicted by that individual's testimony at trial, fares no better. The affidavit stated that the informant had observed Cuni unloading boxes from a van at the Novaton residence under the supervision of a police officer, but in his trial testimony, the informant retreated from that statement. However, the mere fact that an informant's trial testimony contradicts information attributed to that informant in an affidavit supporting a warrant does not entitle a defendant to suppression. Instead, the defendant must show that it is the agent, and not the informant, who has made misrepresentations. On this point, the magistrate judge heard testimony from another agent corroborating Agent Lucas' account of the information learned from the informants. Thereafter, the magistrate judge made factual findings, subsequently adopted by the district court, accepting the agents' version of their conversations with the informants. The court also found that Cuni ha[d] failed to show that Agent Lucas either lied or recklessly presented false testimony in the wiretap affidavit. In light of the record and the superior opportunity of the magistrate judge to make credibility findings, we cannot say that these findings were clearly erroneous. 64 Next, we turn to the Franks challenge based on the erroneous statement by Agent Lucas in his affidavits that Cuni had a previous cocaine-related conviction, when in fact Cuni's prior conviction related to heroin. We agree with the district court that this error was completely immaterial to the finding of probable cause for the wiretaps. Cuni's argument to the contrary is frivolous. 65 Finally, Cuni argues that Agent Lucas should have included in his affidavits information concerning possible animus between the informants and Cuni as well as details about the informants' criminal histories, including the fact that one of the informants had previously been convicted of lying to a police officer. The magistrate judge and district court found these alleged omissions did not entitle Cuni to suppression. With respect to the failure to provide information concerning possible animus, the district court observed that judges are accustomed to dealing with information derived from informants, and are well aware that such information is often obtained in the context of personal rancor and mixed motives. The court also noted that the agents had corroborated much of the information provided by the informants, thereby making the failure to inform the court of animus less material. 66 Similarly, the magistrate judge noted that the failure to perform more thorough reviews of the informants' criminal histories was a result of the fact that the investigation implicated Miami police officers, and, consequently, the agents involved were cautious not to call attention to the informants by digging into their criminal records. The magistrate judge, therefore, found that the failure to discover and disclose aspects of the informants' criminal histories was not an omission made with reckless disregard. The district court adopted this finding. We conclude that, under the facts of this case, the district court did not clearly err by finding that Cuni had failed to carry his burden of showing that the alleged omissions relating to the informants' criminal histories were either deliberate or reckless. Furthermore, in light of the other facts contained in the affidavits, the alleged omissions were immaterial to a finding of probable cause for the wiretaps. Therefore, Cuni's Franks challenge fails.