Opinion ID: 402336
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Vincent Beltempo

Text: 14 The principal thrust of Beltempo's argument before us is that the district court incorrectly failed to suppress evidence of the heroin traces found in his apartment. He claims (1) that the search warrant procured by the DEA was based on information obtained over 50 days prior to the application and that it should therefore fail for lack of probable cause; and (2) that he was denied due process of law because the government destroyed the evidence seized in his apartment. 15 The application for the warrant was made on April 1, 1981 by Special Agent Stia of the DEA. On information and belief, he alleged that there was presently being concealed at apartment 12-M 400 East 71st Street, New York traces of heroin, and screwdrivers, hammers and other tools used for extracting heroin from false bottom suitcases. He set forth the source of his information as Antonia Ganguzza who advised him, at an unspecified time, that on February 7, 1981, she smuggled drugs into the United States from Italy in false bottom suitcases. He related that she advised him of her trip to Vincent Beltempo's apartment on the Upper East Side. He stated that investigation revealed the apartment described was leased to Beltempo. She told him, he continued, of the tools used to open the suitcases and that she observed a small quantity of heroin spilled on the rug in the process. A DEA chemist advised Stia that traces of heroin can be found in a rug even after a period of some months. He was told that if the rug had been vacuumed, traces may be found in the vacuum cleaner bag and the tools used if they came into contact with heroin might have traces as well. 16 On the same day Magistrate Raby issued a search warrant to examine the apartment for these traces. Defendant claims that the issuance of this warrant on April 1, 52 days after the date when Ganguzza was in the apartment, was improper because it was based on stale information insufficient to support claimed probable cause to search. 17 The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by providing that no search warrant shall issue but upon probable cause. A neutral magistrate must be satisfied that there is probable cause to believe that grounds for the application exist before he issues a warrant. Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(c). Probable cause to issue a warrant looks first to the adequacy and reliability of the observation. Specificity assured, currency is considered. To justify a present search probable cause must be current and not rest on facts which existed in the past, unless there is reason to believe those facts are still in existence. 3 C. Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure § 662 at 23 (1969). 18 The general principles governing the delay between the known existence of facts and the issuance of a warrant were set forth by Chief Justice Hughes in Sgro v. United States, 287 U.S. 206, 53 S.Ct. 138, 77 L.Ed. 260 (1932). While the statute does not fix the time within which proof of probable cause must be taken by the judge or commissioner, it is manifest that the proof must be of facts so closely related to the time of the issue of the warrant as to justify a finding of probable cause at that time. Whether the proof meets this test must be determined by the circumstances of each case. Id. at 210-11, 53 S.Ct. at 140. In viewing the circumstances to determine whether probable cause exists in a given case, there should be applied practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 175, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1310, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949). Further, in considering whether the time lapse is reasonable, heavy reliance is placed on the nature of the offense. Where the activity is of a continuing nature a greater time lapse is justified than where the offense is an isolated one. Comment, A Fresh Look at State Probable Cause: Examining the Timeliness Requirement of the Fourth Amendment, 59 Iowa L.Rev. 1308 (1974); 68 Am.Jur.2d Searches and Seizures § 70 (1973); see cases collected at Annot., 100 A.L.R.2d 525 (1965). 19 The question here is whether probable cause existed at the time the warrant issued to believe that the heroin observed on February 7, 1981 was still to be found on Beltempo's rug, or whether so long a period of time had passed as to make it doubtful that the drug was still there. United States v. Ramirez, 279 F.2d 712, 715 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 364 U.S. 850, 81 S.Ct. 95, 5 L.Ed.2d 74 (1960); United States v. Brinklow, 560 F.2d 1003, 1005 (10th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1047, 98 S.Ct. 893, 54 L.Ed.2d 798 (1978). 20 Were this case to be viewed as one involving a continuing offense-and a persuasive argument can be made that conspiracy to smuggle heroin into the United States fits that description-that would end the discussion, for a 52 day lapse would not vitiate probable cause in an ongoing scheme of illegal importation. But the affidavit upon which the search warrant issued contained no allegation that such was the fact. It referred only to the single February 7, 1981 incident when the informant Ganguzza was present in defendant Vincent Beltempo's apartment. 21 In this isolated incident type of case 6 some courts have focused solely on the element of time that has elapsed. The court in Schoeneman v. United States, 317 F.2d 173, 177 (D.C.Cir.1963) stated that no case could be found that sustained a search warrant issued more than 30 days after the finding of evidence, and one commentator has concluded that a lapse of more than seven weeks has always rendered a search warrant nugatory, Annot., 100 A.L.R.2d at 527. 22 Adopting an arbitrary cut-off expressed in days or weeks beyond which probable cause ceases to exist, in our view improperly substitutes a rigid formula for the informed judgment which it is the duty of a magistrate to exercise. Factors as important as the time element to be considered in determining the existence of probable cause include the nature of the object sought, its location on the premises and the state in which it was observed. The nature of the object would encompass such considerations as whether it is large or small, moveable or fixed, disposable or permanent and innocuous or incriminating. The location of an object on the premises would involve, for example, whether it was in plain sight on a table, locked in a safe, on a beam in a cellar or secreted behind a bricked-in wall. The state in which the object was seen is especially important today because modern technology and equipment have the sophisticated capacity to ascertain whether matter-in whatever form it may be-is present or even may have once been present. This technology can detect, for example, a blood stain on clothes, furniture or rug; a gas that evaporates; a solid that dissolves and disappears, or one that changes into a powder or a liquid that seeps into a fabric, or dust that is suspended in air and whose particles may later be found on the top ledge of a door. The inquiry with respect to probable cause in the case of an observation of an isolated incident should focus on all of the relevant circumstances, including the element of time lapse, to determine the probability of the continued existence of the object sought at the place where it was last seen. The overall approach should be one of flexibility and common sense. Compare United States v. Dauphinee, 538 F.2d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 1976) (search upheld after 30 days elapsed where the objects were hand grenades); United States v. Rosenbarger, 536 F.2d 715, 719-20 (6th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 965, 97 S.Ct. 2920, 53 L.Ed.2d 1060 (1977) (search upheld where 21 days elapsed in search for possession of firearms); United States v. Steeves, 525 F.2d 33, 38 (8th Cir. 1975) (search valid after 87 days where object of search was two rifles); and United States v. Rahn, 511 F.2d 290, 292-93 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 825, 96 S.Ct. 41, 46 L.Ed.2d 42 (1975) (warrant for search for weapons upheld after two years, citing Neal, infra ); with United States v. Neal, 500 F.2d 305, 309 (10th Cir. 1974) (search warrant invalid after three months lapse where object was stolen credit cards and stolen auto parts); and Rosencranz v. United States, 356 F.2d 310, 315-18 (1st Cir. 1966) (warrant invalid where no time is alleged in the affidavit as to when the object was last observed on the premises). 23 Were we merely to count the number of days between Ganguzza's observation and the date of the warrant's issuance, this could arguably be a close case. Even were it to be considered doubtful, however, a presumption of regularity attaches to official acts so that a magistrate's finding of probable cause is itself a substantial factor tending to uphold the validity of the warrant. United States v. Jackstadt, 617 F.2d 12, 13 (2d Cir. 1980), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 966, 100 S.Ct. 1656, 64 L.Ed.2d 242 (1981); see United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 106, 85 S.Ct. 741, 744, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965). 24 In any event this is not a close case when viewed in a common sense manner. The object sought was small and although its possession was incriminating, it was innocuous in its hidden location within the pile of a rug. The heroin sought here was a powder that does not dissolve or evaporate and whose presence an expert indicated lingers for a period of some months. Traces of the spilled narcotic were likely to remain in a rug, even one that had been vacuumed. The tools used by Beltempo to pry open the false bottoms of suitcases are ordinarily kept on the premises and not likely to have been washed or cleaned. Here a common sense view of all the circumstances belies the contention that a time lapse alone precludes the existence of probable cause. See Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 478-79 n.9, 96 S.Ct. 2737, 2747-2748 n.9, 49 L.Ed.2d 627 (1976). Thus, the validity of this warrant should be upheld. 25 The issue of the destruction of the heroin traces is more readily disposed of. Intentional destruction is a serious matter that may involve imposition of sanctions, even a new trial. See United States v. Bufalino, 576 F.2d 446, 449 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 928, 99 S.Ct. 314, 58 L.Ed.2d 321 (1978). In United States v. Grammatikos, 633 F.2d 1013, 1019-20 (2d Cir. 1980), we said the appropriateness and extent of sanctions in such situations depends upon a case-by-case assessment of the government's culpability for the loss, together with a realistic appraisal of its significance when viewed in light of its nature, its bearing upon critical issues in the case and the strength of the government's untainted proof. We note that this was not an intentional destruction. Rather, it was a good faith loss that came about as a necessary consequence of the method used to analyze the scrapings and sweepings which consumed the heroin in the process. 7 As such it does not invoke the sanction of exclusion of the evidence particularly where, as here, the expert who performed the scientific tests is available for cross-examination. United States v. Love, 482 F.2d 213, 218-19 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1026, 94 S.Ct. 453, 38 L.Ed.2d 318 (1973); see United States v. Augenblick, 393 U.S. 348, 89 S.Ct. 528, 21 L.Ed.2d 537 (1969). In the instant case, moreover, pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 16(a)(1)(D) defendant was offered an opportunity to examine and test for any scrapings that could be extracted from the vacuum cleaner bag since only the contents of the bag had been tested, not the bag itself. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to credit defendant's argument that Brady material was wrongfully denied him, since there is not the slightest suggestion that the prosecution suppressed evidence which would have been favorable to him. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963).