Opinion ID: 278481
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Alleged Wiretapping

Text: 15 It appears that after Santoro's arrest in Stockton he called Miss Marino in Chicago with reference to obtaining bail. In the course of the conversation Santoro requested Miss Marino 'to water the plants' and 'take out some garbage' in his apartment in Chicago. Thereafter F.B.I. agents visited Miss Marino and asked her if the reference to watering plants or taking out the garbage had any special meaning. Santoro was also asked by F.B.I. agents whether these phrases had any special meaning. Both had said this language had no hidden meaning and had so advised the F.B.I. (R.T. pp. 534-536.) Both Santoro and Miss Marino in the affidavits indicated that they had revealed their conversation to no one else. 16 At the trial, both prior to and following the government's case, motions to suppress were renewed. Since appellant did not point to the specific evidence which he contended had its source in the wiretap, the court denied the motions. This, appellant asserts, is error. He contends that once wiretapping is established (or, as here, incorporated in an offer of proof), the appellant has met his burden, and the burden is then on the government to establish lack of taint in the evidence upon which it relies. As support appellant cites United States v. Coplon, 185 F.2d 629, 636 (2d Cir. 1950), where it was stated: 17 'The accused has the burden of proving that the prosecution has in fact 'tapped' his wires; but, if he succeeds in doing so, the burden falls upon the prosecution to prove that the information so gained has not 'led,' directly or indirectly, to the discovery of any of the evidence which it introduces.' 185 F.2d at 636. 18 Accepting arguendo that such is the proper assignment of burden in a proper case, we do not regard it as appropriate here. 19 The district court was within its discretion in denying appellant's pre-trial motion to suppress on the basis that he had already received one chance to attack the evidence prior to trial and had chosen to do so on affidavits only. The motion was denied without prejudice to its renewal at the close of the government's case. Thus when appellant finally made his offer of proof of the existence of the wiretap, the government's evidence was in and its nature was apparent to the trial judge. 20 The evidence upon which the government's case rests appears on its face to have been wholly unrelated to the single alleged post-arrest tap and to have been the product of normal investigation and of surveillance founded on pre-arrest suspicion. It related solely to proof of ownership of certain automobiles, engine number alteration, and sale of the same automobiles by Santoro and his codefendants. Testimony was given by the car owners, expert examiners of engine number changes, purchasers of the cars, and FBI agents who were watching the final sale. The district court was understandably at a loss to see how such evidence could be related to a single tapped phone call made by appellant from the Stockton jail following his arrest. 21 At this point the burden was on the defense to show not only the fact of a wiretap to which the government has access, but to show a tap that was conceivably the source of government evidence. Nothing would be gained by having the government proceed through the time-consuming formality of identifying the source of all of its evidence where that evidence has already been presented to the court and its nature is such as to reject the wiretap as its source. In such a case it is appropriate to place the burden on appellant of pointing to evidence which might by some means have been the product of the tap and whose source he wishes disclosed. 22 We affirm the denial of the motion to suppress under the facts of this case and we find no error justifying a reversal of the conviction. The conviction is affirmed.