Opinion ID: 539182
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Lawfulness of the May 12 Warrant

Text: 33 Villegas contends that the May 12 warrant was unlawful under both Fed.R.Crim.P. 41 and the Fourth Amendment principally because it authorized a search without a seizure of tangible property and authorized a covert entry without contemporaneous notice. We reject these contentions. 34
The Fourth Amendment provides that 35 [t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 36 Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides, in pertinent part, as follows: 37 (b) Property ... Which May Be Seized With a Warrant. A warrant may be issued under this rule to search for and seize any (1) property that constitutes evidence of the commission of a criminal offense; or (2) contraband, the fruits of crime, or things otherwise criminally possessed; or (3) property designed or intended for use or which is or has been used as the means of committing a criminal offense.... 38 .... 39 (d) Execution and Return with Inventory. The officer taking property under the warrant shall give to the person from whom or from whose premises the property was taken a copy of the warrant and a receipt for the property taken or shall leave the copy and receipt at the place from which the property was taken. The return shall be made promptly and shall be accompanied by a written inventory of any property taken.... 40 .... 41 (h) Scope and Definition.... The term property is used in this rule to include documents, books, papers and any other tangible objects. 42 Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(b), (d), (h). 43 In challenging the May 12 warrant on the ground that it authorized a search without a seizure of tangible evidence, Villegas argues that this type of warrant is unauthorized by Rule 41 and is unconstitutional because it does not comply with the particularity requirements of the Fourth Amendment, contending that [i]f 'information' regarding the status of a criminal enterprise is an intangible item which can be listed as the subject of a search on a warrant, then the particularity requirement is nullified. (Villegas brief on appeal at 11, 12.) This contention is contrary to established doctrine. 44 First, we note that Rule 41 does not define the extent of the court's power to issue a search warrant. Obviously the Fourth Amendment long antedated the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which were first adopted in 1944. Given the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirements, and assuming no statutory prohibition, the courts must be deemed to have inherent power to issue a warrant when the requirements of that Amendment are met. See, e.g., United States v. Torres, 751 F.2d 875, 877-79 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1087, 105 S.Ct. 1853, 85 L.Ed.2d 150 (1985); Application of the United States of America In the Matter of an Order Authorizing the Use of a Pen Register, 538 F.2d 956, 959 (2d Cir.1976), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. United States v. New York Telephone Co., 434 U.S. 159, 164, 168, 98 S.Ct. 364, 368, 370, 54 L.Ed.2d 376 (1977) (The Court of Appeals ... concluded that district courts have the power, either inherently or as a logical derivative of Fed.Crim.Proc. 41, to authorize pen register surveillance upon an adequate showing of probable cause. We ... agree with the Court of Appeals that the District Court had power to authorize the installation of the pen registers.); United States v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., 546 F.2d 243, 245-46 (8th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1008, 98 S.Ct. 716, 54 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978); cf. United States v. Giordano, 416 U.S. 505, 554, 94 S.Ct. 1820, 1845, 40 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974) (Powell, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (permissibility of search device not regulated by statute depends entirely on compliance with the constitutional requirements of the Fourth Amendment). 45 Second, though Rule 41 expressly mentions only documents, books, papers and any other tangible objects, it is clear that both the Rule and the Fourth Amendment extend to searches for and seizures of intangibles as well. See United States v. New York Telephone Co., 434 U.S. 159, 98 S.Ct. 364, 54 L.Ed.2d 376 (1977). In New York Telephone, the Court considered a warrant authorizing the use of pen registers that would disclose numbers called from a given telephone line. The Court rejected the contention that a warrant could not lawfully authorize a search for such intangibles, stating that Rule 41 is not limited to tangible items but is sufficiently flexible to include within its scope electronic intrusions authorized upon a finding of probable cause. Id. at 169, 98 S.Ct. at 370. It noted that what is seized in such an endeavor is information, finding that the above-quoted language of Rule 41(b) was 46 broad enough to encompass a search designed to ascertain the use which is being made of a telephone suspected of being employed as a means of facilitating a criminal venture and the seizure of evidence which the search of the telephone produces. Although Rule 41(h) defines property to include documents, books, papers and any other tangible objects, it does not restrict or purport to exhaustively enumerate all the items which may be seized pursuant to Rule 41. 47 Id. (footnote omitted). 48 The seizure of intangible evidence has been explored principally in the context of the interception of conversations. See, e.g., Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 505, 511, 81 S.Ct. 679, 682, 5 L.Ed.2d 734 (1961) (conversations overheard by means of microphone touching heating duct); Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 353, 88 S.Ct. 507, 512, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (telephone conversations overheard by means of listening device attached to outside of public telephone booth); Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. 41, 54-60, 87 S.Ct. 1873, 1881-84, 18 L.Ed.2d 1040 (1967) (conversations intercepted by wiretap). The principle that neither Rule 41 nor the Fourth Amendment prohibits seizure of intangible property has been applied by the Supreme Court to uphold the interception of nonverbal auditory information, such as that gained through the use of pen registers, see United States v. New York Telephone Co., 434 U.S. at 169-70, 98 S.Ct. at 370-71, and that gained through the placement of location-monitoring beepers in movable property, see United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276, 285, 103 S.Ct. 1081, 1087, 75 L.Ed.2d 55 (1983); see also United States v. Karo, 468 U.S. 705, 715, 104 S.Ct. 3296, 3303, 82 L.Ed.2d 530 (1984) (beeper). 49 This principle has also been applied by this Court to uphold a warrant authorizing the gathering of visual information through the use of a video camera. See United States v. Biasucci, 786 F.2d 504, 509 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 827, 107 S.Ct. 104, 93 L.Ed.2d 54 (1986); accord United States v. Torres, 751 F.2d at 883 (upholding warrant authorizing television surveillance of safe house); see also United States v. Taborda, 635 F.2d 131, 139 (2d Cir.1980) (warrant required for viewing of private area through telescope). 50 Given these authorities, we reject Villegas's contention that the district court had no power to issue a search warrant pursuant to which only intangible evidence would be seized. Accord United States v. Freitas, 800 F.2d 1451, 1455 (9th Cir.1986) (ruling that search-without-physical-seizure warrant was authorized, though not validly issued because it (1) failed to make any provision for notice, and (2) lacked particularity as to the intangible property to be seized); see also United States v. Freitas, 856 F.2d 1425, 1433 (9th Cir.1988). 51 Finally, we note that Villegas's contention that any authorization for seizure of only intangible property breaches the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment is wide of the mark. The particularity requirement means that the warrant must, while indicating the crime under investigation, specify  'the place to be searched,'  and  'the persons or things to be seized.'  Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. at 56, 87 S.Ct. at 1882 (quoting Fourth Amendment). This requirement was plainly met in the present case. The May 12 warrant authorized a search of 52 a farmhouse, a barn, two outbuildings and surrounding land on Johnycake [sic ] Road, near Little Falls, Herkimer County, New York, owned by B & V Village Farms, Inc., c/o Silk & Slonim, 275 Madison Avenue, New York, New York. 53 The warrant authorized search for the following specific items: cocaine, cocaine base, ether, acetone, filter paper, drying racks, sceens [sic --screens], [and] records of telephone numbers. Since the warrant went on to forbid a seizure of tangible property, it obviously authorized the seizure only of visual images of the items for which the search was authorized. 54 We conclude that the listing of the above items sufficiently indicated that the crime to which the sought evidence was to relate was manufacture of cocaine, and that the warrant was sufficiently particular in its description of the place to be searched and the visual images to be seized. 55
56 We also reject Villegas's contention that the July 14 warrant should have been suppressed because the May 13 search was initiated by means of a covert entry into the farm or because notice of the entry and search was not given to him until after his arrest on July 14. Though we believe that certain safeguards are required where the entry is to be covert and only intangible evidence is to be seized, we conclude that appropriate conditions were imposed in this case. 57 Certain types of searches or surveillances depend for their success on the absence of premature disclosure. The use of a wiretap, or a bug, or a pen register, or a video camera would likely produce little evidence of wrongdoing if the wrongdoers knew in advance that their conversations or actions would be monitored. When nondisclosure of the authorized search is essential to its success, neither Rule 41 nor the Fourth Amendment prohibits covert entry. See, e.g., Dalia v. United States, 441 U.S. 238, 99 S.Ct. 1682, 60 L.Ed.2d 177 (1979) (Fourth Amendment); Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. at 355-56 & n. 16, 88 S.Ct. at 513-14 & n. 16 (Rule 41). 58 In Dalia, the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit per se a covert entry performed for the purpose of installing otherwise legal electronic bugging equipment. 441 U.S. at 248, 99 S.Ct. at 1689 (footnote omitted). In reaching this decision, the Court noted its criticisms of warrantless covert entries in Irvine v. California, 347 U.S. 128, 74 S.Ct. 381, 98 L.Ed. 561 (1954), and Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. at 511-12, 81 S.Ct. at 682-83; see, e.g., id. ([t]his Court has never held that a federal officer may without warrant and without consent physically entrench into a man's office or home, there secretly observe or listen, and relate at the man's subsequent criminal trial what was seen or heard (emphasis in Dalia )). The Dalia Court stated that 59 [i]mplicit in decisions such as Silverman and Irvine has been the Court's view that covert entries are constitutional in some circumstances, at least if they are made pursuant to warrant. 60 Moreover, we find no basis for a constitutional rule proscribing all covert entries. It is well established that law officers constitutionally may break and enter to execute a search warrant where such entry is the only means by which the warrant effectively may be executed. 61 441 U.S. at 247, 99 S.Ct. at 1688. The Court noted that the Fourth Amendment does not require a court to specify the officers' manner of executing a search warrant, and it concluded that a covert entry may be upheld though it has not been expressly mentioned in the warrant. Id. at 257-59, 99 S.Ct. at 1693-94. 62 In Katz v. United States, the Court noted that when covert entry and nondisclosure are appropriate, Rule 41 does not require that the owner of the property be given advance or contemporary notice of the entry. See 389 U.S. at 355 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. at 513-14 n. 16 (officers need not announce their purpose before conducting an otherwise authorized search if such an announcement would provoke the escape of the suspect or the destruction of critical evidence; Rule 41(d) does not impose an inflexible requirement of prior notice). In Dalia, the Court described the contention that covert entries are unconstitutional for their lack of notice as frivolous. 441 U.S. at 247, 99 S.Ct. at 1688. Thus we conclude that covert entries without contemporaneous notice may be authorized. 63 Nonetheless, when the authorized entry is to be covert and no tangible property is to be seized, there must be some safeguard to minimize the possibility that the officers will exceed the bounds of propriety without detection. In order to balance the individual's privacy and property interests against appropriate law enforcement interests, all types of searches are subject to some safeguards. For conventional searches and seizures, for example, the officers are required to give to the person from whose premises the property was taken, or to leave at those premises, a copy of the warrant and a receipt for the property taken. Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(d). In the context of electronic interception of wire conversations, Congress has established extensive safeguards, see Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. Secs. 2510-2520 (1982) (Title III), including requirements (a) that the warrant not allow the period of interception to be longer than is necessary to achieve the objective of the authorization, nor in any event longer than thirty days (though renewals are possible), id. Sec. 2518(5), (b) that the interception be conducted in such a way as to minimize the interception of communications not otherwise subject to interception under [Title III], id. Sec. 2518(5), and (c) that an inventory be served on the person named in the order [w]ithin a reasonable time but not later than ninety days after ... the termination of the period of an order or extensions thereof, id. Sec. 2518(8)(d). In the context of electronic interception of visual images, which is not regulated by federal statute, the courts have devised some safeguards by analogy to those required by Title III; but they have not necessarily adopted those Title III requirements that do more than implement constitutional requirements. See, e.g., United States v. Biasucci, 786 F.2d at 510; United States v. Torres, 751 F.2d at 884-85. 64 In devising appropriate safeguards for a covert-entry search for only intangibles, we note that in many ways this is the least intrusive of these three types of searches. It is less intrusive than a conventional search with physical seizure because the latter deprives the owner not only of privacy but also of the use of his property. It is less intrusive than a wiretap or video camera surveillance because the physical search is of relatively short duration, focuses the search specifically on the items listed in the warrant, and produces information as of a given moment, whereas the electronic surveillance is ongoing and indiscriminate, gathering in any activities within its mechanical focus. Thus, several of the limitations on wiretaps or videotape surveillance, such as duration and minimization, would be superfluous in the context of a physical search. 65 We think two limitations on the issuance of warrants for covert-entry searches for intangibles are appropriate. First, the court should not allow the officers to dispense with advance or contemporaneous notice of the search unless they have made a showing of reasonable necessity for the delay. Though we do not suggest that the officers must meet as rigorous a standard as that imposed by Title III, under which the judge authorizing a wiretap must certify that normal investigative procedures have been tried and have failed or reasonably appear to be unlikely to succeed if tried or to be too dangerous, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2518(3)(c), the officers must at least satisfy the issuing authority that there is good reason for delay. 66 Second, if a delay in notice is to be allowed, the court should nonetheless require the officers to give the appropriate person notice of the search within a reasonable time after the covert entry. See United States v. Freitas, 800 F.2d at 1456. What constitutes a reasonable time will depend on the circumstances of each individual case. We would, however, agree with the Freitas court that as an initial matter, the issuing court should not authorize a notice delay of longer than seven days. For good cause, the issuing court may thereafter extend the period of delay. Such extensions should not be granted solely on the basis of the grounds presented for the first delay; rather, the applicant should be required to make a fresh showing of the need for further delay. Cf. Berger v. New York, 388 U.S. at 59-60, 87 S.Ct. at 1883-84 (extensions of wiretap authorization should not be granted without new showings of probable cause therefor). 67 If these limitations on the withholding of notice are followed, and the court places the usual time limits on the execution of the warrant and the making of the return to the court, we believe the interests of both the individual and the government will be adequately served. 68 We see no deviation from the preferred procedures in the present case. The May 12 warrant provided that notice could be delayed for seven days and that [s]aid period of delay may be extended by order of this Court upon a showing of good cause. The application presented ample ground for this initial delay. The Delgado affidavit stated, inter alia, that the pen register installed on the Johnnycake farm phone was of little help since it revealed that the phone was used infrequently, that the remote setting of the farm made physical surveillance extremely difficult, and that there were no informants who might be able to infiltrate the group. The agents showed good reason to believe that Villegas had numerous coconspirators who had not yet been identified. The court was justified in permitting the officers to delay the initial notice. 69 Thereafter, the agents sought a series of additional seven-day extensions. In connection with each request, an agent submitted an affidavit supplying additional information on the progress of the investigation and a statement of the need for further delay of notice. These affidavits, ranging in length from two to six pages, were neither pro forma nor reflective of stale information. In each instance, the court found that the new affidavit showed good cause for the further delay and granted the requested authorization. Since these affidavits provided a substantial basis for the court to conclude that the further delay of notice would lead to evidence of wrongdoing, we defer to the court's decision to permit further delays. Cf. United States v. Nersesian, 824 F.2d 1294, 1306 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 958, 108 S.Ct. 357, 98 L.Ed.2d 382 (1987). While we do not suggest that extensions could properly be granted indefinitely, we conclude that the tolerable limit was not exceeded in this case. 70 In all the circumstances, we reject Villegas's contention that the May 12 warrant was made invalid by the failure to give him notice of the May 13 search until after the July 14 arrests. 71 Finally, we note that even if we were to rule that the district court should not have authorized the covert entry in May, there would be no basis on which to suppress the July 14 warrant. We do not find in the record any suggestion that during the May 13 search the officers found any records or other writings that substantially assisted in their further investigations. What they gained from that search was confirmation rather than new leads. There can be no doubt that, even without any inspection of the interior of the Johnnycake farm buildings, the representations in the affidavit submitted in support of the May 12 warrant, together with the information obtained in the further investigation and in the drive-by observations described in later affidavits, all of which were submitted to the court in support of the July 14 warrant, constituted ample probable cause for the issuance of a warrant to search and seize any evidence of a cocaine manufacturing operation at Johnnycake farm.