Opinion ID: 268598
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Cablegrams

Text: 10 The trial court, over the objections of defense counsel, permitted the two cablegrams sent by Bolland to Carmen Lopez (Coscia) to be admitted into evidence. Defendant Bolland contends that the cablegrams were inadmissible in that they were illegally obtained under Section 605 of the Federal Communications Act which provides in pertinent part as follows: 11 No person receiving or assisting in receiving, or transmitting, or assisting in transmitting, any interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning thereof, except    in response to a subpoena issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, or on demand of other lawful authority; and no person not being authorized by the sender shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person;   . (Emphasis added.) 12 The Government, on the other hand, argues that the agent's obtaining the contents of the messages constituted a demand of other lawful authority under the statute and that, in any event, the subsequent subpoenas of the cablegrams rendered them admissible. While we do not necessarily agree with the Government's interpretation of this statutory language, we do find that the Government's alternative ground for admissibility is compatible with Section 605 and the cases decided thereunder. In other words, the cablegrams were admissible because knowledge of their transmission was acquired from an independent source and because they were obtainable and were in fact subsequently obtained by other legal means. So far as the appellant Bruchon is concerned, his standing to object is doubtful for he is not a sender. Goldstein v. United States, 316 U.S. 114, 62 S.Ct. 1000, 86 L.Ed. 1312 (1941). 13 The admission in evidence of the contents of the cablegrams under the circumstances of this case was not error. Where, as here, the sending of the messages is independently known to the officers from their own observations, the communications could have been obtained on demand by the agents' superior, the Secretary of the Treasury, and subpoenas were in fact obtained and served prior to trial with respect to the transmittals, there has been sufficient compliance, even though belated, with the Communications Act, and appellants' rights have not been violated. Indeed, Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 40 S.Ct. 182, 64 L.Ed. 319 (1920), relied on by appellants, itself stated that information improperly acquired will be admissible if elsewhere gained from an independent source, 251 U.S. at 392, 40 S.Ct. at 183, an exception that surely applies to the statutory protection of Section 605 at least as readily as to the constitutional right involved in Silverthorne. 14 The narcotics agent assigned to keeping Bolland under surveillance observed Bolland both times that Bolland entered the telegraph offices and wrote out the cables; it was natural to expect that the agent and his co-agents would be curious about their contents and would obtain copies. 1 If the agent had been less zealous in carrying out his assignment and had appraised the situation with greater care, he probably would not have intercepted the cablegrams when he did and instead would have relied on the power of the Secretary of the Treasury, pursuant to Title 21, U.S.C. § 198a, 198b, 2 and arranged to subpoena all cables sent between certain times — a course that might have led to a more substantial divulgence of private communications than that pursued. The ease with which the Secretary of the Treasury may legally authorize the issuance of a subpoena in furtherance of a narcotics investigation points to another very significant difference between this case and Silverthorne, supra. In Silverthorne, the Government was required to meet the more stringent test of satisfying a judicial officer that it was entitled to a search warrant. 15 In any event, this apparent mistake in judgment was unequivocally rectified when the two cablegrams were obtained by subpoenas prior to trial. 3 As already noted, there was sufficient information independent of the illegal interceptions to justify the subsequent applications for and granting of subpoenas, and it was a near certainty that the cables would have been acquired by subpoena even had the original disclosures never occurred. See Somer v. United States, 138 F.2d 790, 792 (2 Cir. 1943); Sullivan v. United States, 95 U.S.App.D.C. 78, 219 F.2d 760, 762 (1955). The contents of the cablegrams were not rendered inadmissible under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. See Peek v. United States, 321 F.2d 934, 939 (9 Cir. 1963). Compare United States v. Paroutian, 299 F.2d 486 (2 Cir. 1962).