Opinion ID: 331054
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the wiretap application and order

Text: 5 The federal statute under which Judge Blumenfeld authorized the Chiarizio wiretap requires both the applicant for the court order and the court itself to specify the person, 'if known,' who is believed to be committing the crime under investigation and who is therefore to be put under electronic surveillance. 18 U.S.C. §§ 2518(1)(b)(iv) and 2518(4)(a). 2 The legal standard to be applied under this statute has been explicitly established by the Supreme Court in United States v. Kahn, 415 U.S. 143, 155, 94 S.Ct. 977, 984, 39 L.Ed.2d 225 (1974): an individual must be identified in the wiretap application and subsequent court order 'when the law enforcement authorities have probable cause to believe that that individual is 'committing the offense' for which the wiretap is sought.' If federal agents have sufficient evidence to establish probable cause with respect to an individual, who will probably be intercepted by the wiretap, that individual must be identified, by name, in the application and order. If such specific identification does not occur, the application and orders are statutorily invalid and the evidence derived therefrom is inadmissible in a court of law. 18 U.S.C. § 2515. 6 Among Chiarizio's co-defendants was one Emil Sapere whose conversations were intercepted on the Chiarizio wiretap. Sapere was not mentioned in either the application for the court order or the court order itself. Chiarizio maintains that the FBI had sufficient evidence of a Sapere-Chiarizio connection to know of Sapere's illegal gambling activities at the time of the wiretap application and to realize the likelihood that Sapere would be intercepted on a Chiarizio wiretap. Chiarizio maintains that, given the government's probable cause to believe in the Chiarizio-Sapere connection, §§ 2518(1)(b)(iv) and 2518(4)(a) required that Sapere be identified, by name, as a 'known' target of the wiretap. Since Sapere was not so identified, Chiarizio concludes, the application and order violated the statute under which they were issued and the wiretap evidence derived therefrom was inadmissible. 7 The government argues that its prior information with respect to a Chiarizio-Sapere connection was peripheral, and that, in any event, the agents who applied to Judge Blumenfeld for the Chiarizio court order were unaware of that little information which did point to a Sapere-Chiarizio connection. Hence, the government maintains, the agents applying for the order did not have probable cause to believe that Sapere would be intercepted on the Chiarizio wiretap. In the absence of such probable cause, it was unnecessary to name Sapere as a target in either the application or order. 8 Judge Blumenfeld, after two days of pretrial testimony, credited the government's witnesses and found that the government agents requesting the court order did not in fact possess sufficient information at the time of the application to establish probable cause with respect to defendant Sapere. He therefore held that the requirements of §§ 2518(1)(b)(iv) and 2518(4)(a) had been complied with and that the Chiarizio wiretap was legal and the evidence derived therefrom was admissible. 9 In light of Judge Blumenfeld's exhaustive discussion of this issue and his thoughtful analysis of the evidence raised by both sides, Chiarizio, supra at 867, we find it unnecessary to review all the details of the case. Judge Blumenfeld, who saw and heard the government agents at the pretrial hearing, credited their testimony as to their unawareness of that evidence which might have pointed to a Chiarizio-Sapere relationship. 10 Of course, we would be extremely concerned if it became a common practice for government agents to justify in retrospect the names omitted from wiretap applications on the ground that government agents had forgotten or ignored important evidence already in the government's possession. However, in the instant situation, there is no indication of such repeated abuses. Rather, in a single and isolated instance, a trial judge, after examining all the evidence and hearing all the witnesses, credited the testimony of the government agents and found that the facts of which they were aware did not establish probable cause with respect to Sapere at the time of the wiretap application. 11 Judge Blumenfeld's opinion, Chiarizio, supra at 867--74, thoroughly justifies his finding. We will not overturn such findings as to demeanor and credibility except when they are clearly erroneous. Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure: Criminal § 678 at 143. That is not the case here. 12 Accordingly, we reject this first claim of error and sustain the finding that the wiretap application and order were legal under the standards of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2518(1)(b)(iv) and 2518(4)(a). Since the government agents applying for the court order did not have probable cause to believe in Sapere's gambling link with Chiarizio, it was not necessary to name Sapere in the wiretap application and subsequent court order.