Opinion ID: 2189915
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Post-Intercept Problems

Text: O'Connor argues that all wire tap evidence should be suppressed due to six violations of SDCL 23A-35A-12. He contends that the original intercept order and several other wire tap documents were lost or stolen from the state due to the state's attorney's negligence. In addition, the remaining photocopies of the original intercept order have no signature on them, the documents were not properly sealed, the verification of documents occurred three days after their execution, and the issuing judge never kept an inventory of the document file. The Supreme Court has stated on several occasions that not every failure to comply with federal wire tap law will result in suppression of wire tap tapes. Only a failure to satisfy a requirement that directly and substantially promotes a congressional intent will result in suppression. United States v. Donovan, 429 U.S. 413, 97 S.Ct. 658, 50 L.Ed.2d 652 (1977); United States v. Chavez, 416 U.S. 562, 94 S.Ct. 1849, 40 L.Ed.2d 380 (1974). Further, technical noncompliance necessitates suppression only if the violative procedure is a denial of a functional safeguard in the statutory scheme to prevent abuses of the act and if the purpose of the procedure has been frustrated or the procedures deliberately ignored. See United States v. Diana, 605 F.2d 1307 (4th Cir.1979). Although each of the six items of noncompliance demonstrates a denial of a functional safeguard in the statutory scheme to prevent abuse of the act, reversible error was not committed because the judge retained certified copies of all of the lost or stolen documents. The trial court also found that no one had tampered with the certified copies. Because of these facts, O'Connor was not prejudiced by the gross negligence of the state's attorney in violating the functional safeguards of the act since there was no finding that these safeguards were deliberately ignored nor the purpose of the act thwarted by the state's attorney.