Opinion ID: 431713
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Alleged illegal wiretaps and use of an informer.

Text: 35 1. Sixth Amendment claim. Powers raises a number of Sixth Amendment claims relating to the allegedly illegal wiretaps and the use of the alleged informer, Hirsch. Powers asserts that this prosecutorial conduct was designed to circumvent his counsel in violation of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The appellees rely heavily on United States v. Vasquez, 675 F.2d 16 (2d Cir.1982), where we held that it was not in violation of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel to make a tape recording of a conversation the defendant had with a government informant, even where the defendant had already retained counsel and where the defendant was already the subject of an investigation. Following Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 92 S.Ct. 1877, 32 L.Ed.2d 411 (1972), and citing Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 398, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 1239, 51 L.Ed.2d 424 (1977), we noted in Vasquez that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel does not attach until adversarial proceedings have commenced. Thus, both Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (1964) and United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264, 100 S.Ct. 2183, 65 L.Ed.2d 115 (1980), each involving a post-indictment confrontation between government agents and the accused, are distinguishable from Vasquez as well as from this case. Under Vasquez, then, even though Powers was a target of the grand jury and had retained counsel, the allegedly illegal wiretaps do not form the basis for an action under section 1983 alleging violations of his Sixth Amendment rights. 36 2. Fifth Amendment claim. Irrespective of his Sixth Amendment right, Powers maintains that the wiretaps deprived him of his Fifth Amendment right to due process under the decision in United States v. Tarlowski, 305 F.Supp. 112 (E.D.N.Y.1969). In Tarlowski, now Chief Judge Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York granted a motion to suppress certain statements and records obtained from a taxpayer during the course of an investigation by a Internal Revenue Service Special Agent in which the agent deluded the defendant into thinking that he was merely negotiating a civil claim and then, having excluded the taxpayer's accountant, proceeded to state to him his Miranda rights and solicit the statements in question. The instant case is said by Powers to be far more egregious than Tarlowski because at least in Tarlowski the IRS agents were known to be such while here Powers thought he was dealing with his old friend and the godfather to one of his children. 37 But the questions presented by Tarlowski were altogether different from those involved here. In Tarlowski the court considered whether a representative of the federal government [may], at his own behest, limit the right of an individual to demand the presence of others at an investigation. Id. at 116. Carefully framing the issue, Judge Weinstein asked whether such a [government] representative, contemplating a criminal prosecution, [may] demand the presence of an individual for questioning, but, at the same time, refuse that person the right to be accompanied by another in whom he reposes trust and confidence? Id. In answering both of these questions in the negative, Judge Weinstein stressed that the action taken by the government agent was totally unauthorized by statute, id. at 123, and noted the necessarily coercive and intimidating nature of the face-to-face demand by the government agent. Id. at 124. The case, decided in 1969 and, as far as we know, never followed, is thus entirely distinguishable from the case at bar. Moreover, Tarlowski was not a section 1983 case, and involved only the question of the admissibility of evidence. 38 We are, accordingly, unpersuaded that the allegedly unlawful wiretapping violated Powers' Fifth Amendment rights. Not every misdeed constitutes a due process claim, and we are unaware of any authority or reasoning sufficient to transform this alleged transgression into a constitutional case. 39 C. Alleged state court violation of due process. With respect to the allegations pertaining to Powers' failure to obtain an evidentiary hearing in the state courts, we note that no appeal is taken from the dismissal as to the original state judges who were defendants. All that the Chief State's Attorney's office is accused of doing is failing to file a single affidavit in opposition to Powers' motion. Surely, this does not involve any federal right that could conceivably result in a section 1983 violation. The objection to the process whereby the chief prosecuting officer is appointed by the state Supreme Court and is neither elected nor responsible to an elected official is hence not an issue before us. Accordingly, we say only that Powers clearly cannot recover damages from the state prosecutors for an allegedly erroneous ruling by the trial court. See Siano v. Justices of Massachusetts, 698 F.2d 52, 56 (1st Cir.1983), appeal docketed, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 80, 78 L.Ed.2d 91.