Opinion ID: 268598
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Electronic Eavesdropping

Text: 16 A substantial part of the case against the defendants was obtained through the bugging of Bolland's and Arizti's rooms at the Hotel Elysee with electronic eavesdropping equipment. Appellants Bolland and Bruchon now contend that this evidence was inadmissible on two counts: (1) the eavesdropping was accomplished by the invasion of a constitutionally protected area; (2) the evidence was secured by official lawlessness prohibited by New York law and condemned by federal decisions. With respect to the first point, the trial court found, after a hearing on Bolland's pretrial motion to suppress the evidence, that the listening devices had been installed and utilized as the Government agents represented them to have been 4 and accordingly that there had been no technical trespass into either of the hotel rooms of the defendants, which is still essential to a violation of federal law under United States v. Goldman, 316 U.S. 129, 62 S.Ct. 993, 86 L.Ed. 1322 (1943). 5 There is substantial evidence in the record to support those findings. 17 The real question here is whether the eavesdropping evidence was admissible in a federal criminal proceeding in view of the fact that the New York legislature has seen fit specifically to prohibit eavesdropping. Sections 737-745 of the New York Penal Law, McKinney's Consol.Laws, c. 40, make it a felony, punishable by up to two years imprisonment, for a person, including any law enforcement officer, to eavesdrop except where an ex parte order authorizing the eavesdropping has been granted pursuant to Section 813-a of the New York Code of Criminal Procedure. 6 Section 4506 of the Civil Practice Laws and Rules goes even farther by declaring that any evidence obtained by eavesdropping in violation of the Penal Law and Section 813b of the Code of Criminal Procedure is inadmissible for any purpose in any civil or criminal proceeding. 7 18 The New York statutes involved here, however, do not appear to have been intended to apply to federal law enforcement officers. Section 813-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure makes no provision for federal officers, as distinguished from state or local officers, to obtain ex parte orders permitting eavesdropping activities; the statute specifically limits the granting of such an order to a district attorney, the attorney-general or an officer above the rank of sergeant of any police department of the state or of any political subdivision thereof. Under these circumstances, therefore, it seems most likely that the policing of the activities of federal officers was intended to be left to federal statute and the supervision of federal courts, which so far have drawn the line at the point of physical trespass. United States v. Goldman, supra. In view of this construction, we need not even consider the power of a state to regulate the actions of federal law enforcement officers or the admissibility in a federal court of evidence procured by such officers in violation of state law. Cf. Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 468, 48 S.Ct. 564, 72 L.Ed. 944 (1928); On Lee v. United States, 343 U.S. 747, 754-755, 72 S.Ct. 967, 96 L.Ed. 1270 (1952). 8 19