People v. Principe
| Decision Date | 07 May 1985 |
| Citation | 489 N.Y.S.2d 463,65 N.Y.2d 33,478 N.E.2d 979 |
| Parties | , 478 N.E.2d 979 The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Appellant, v. Matty PRINCIPE et al., Defendants, and Tom Velez, Maria Gruezo, Patty Bell, Lillian Hayes and Jarret Weinrich et al., Respondents. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
The standards and procedures for court-authorized eavesdropping in New York State are set forth in CPL article 700. The authority for a State Legislature to enact such legislation is found in title 3 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (18 U.S.C. § 2516), which provides that electronic eavesdropping is permissible "when such interception may provide or has provided evidence of the commission of the offense of murder, kidnapping, gambling, robbery, bribery, extortion, or dealing in narcotic drugs, marihuana or other dangerous drugs, or other crime dangerous to life, limb, or property, and punishable by imprisonment for more than one year, designated in any applicable State statute authorizing such interception, or any conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing offenses" (emphasis supplied).
The issue on this appeal is whether court-ordered eavesdropping for evidence of forgery, larceny and related crimes listed as "Designated offenses" in CPL 700.05(8) is within the umbrella of the Federal act as "other crime dangerous to life, limb, or property" (18 U.S.C. § 2516).
The Appellate Division, 102 A.D.2d 762, 476 N.Y.S.2d 905, in a consolidated appeal, affirmed orders of Criminal Term, which granted motions to suppress evidence so obtained and dismissed counts of indictments founded upon such evidence. For the reasons hereinafter set forth, we reverse the orders of the Appellate Division and reinstate those counts of the indictments.
Initially, we note that on this appeal by the People, we are concerned with only 7 of an original 11 defendants. The seven are charged in various counts of separate indictments with the crimes of forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument criminal possession of stolen property, offering a false instrument for filing, issuing a false certificate, attempted tampering with public records, tampering with public records and conspiracy. These accusations arose out of the investigation of an organized criminal network which had operated for some 10 years at the 125th Street Auto School in the City of New York. Through allegedly corrupt employees of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), defendant Jarret Weinrich was able to process applications for duplicate certificates of title and thus provide an avenue for the disposal of vehicles stolen by other members of the criminal network. In addition, Weinrich, as proprietor of the 125th Street Auto School, offered such "related" services as driver's licenses without road tests and inspection stickers without inspections.
An investigation began in June 1981, when documents in the possession of the automobile crime division of the New York City Police Department revealed that a stolen vehicle identification number (VIN) from a 1978 Audi owned by a Manuel R. Martin had been installed on another 1978 Audi registered in the name of Barbara Phillips. The transfer of title to Phillips was accomplished by the forgery of Martin's name on a duplicate certificate of title. A close examination of the Phillips vehicle and its manufacturer's confidential VIN disclosed that it had been stolen from a third party in the New York City area. Additional inquiry disclosed that the Phillips duplicate title application was one of a number of such requests for late model vehicles made through the 125th Street Auto School. Shortly thereafter, one Daniel Scott was found to be in possession of an automobile with an unauthorized VIN and was arrested for criminal possession of stolen property in the first degree. He agreed to assist the police in their continuing investigation and subsequently implicated others who were involved in the actual theft of vehicles and the sale of VINs to Weinrich.
This information provided the foundation for an eavesdropping warrant to intercept oral communications at the 125th Street Auto School for evidence of the crimes of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, forgery, falsifying business records, offering a false instrument for filing and other related crimes, including conspiracy to commit such crimes. Information obtained by electronic surveillance, in accordance with the provisions of the warrant and court-authorized extensions thereof, provided much of the evidence upon which the Grand Jury relied in returning subsequent indictments. The recorded conversations corroborated information furnished by Scott and provided further evidence of theft of...
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...eavesdropping warrants, is patently meritless and requires no extended discussion. We only recently noted in People v. Principe, 65 N.Y.2d 33, 38, 478 N.Y.S.2d 463, 478 N.E.2d 979, that "it is logical to conclude that in the use of the singular in the 'catch-all' phrase 'or other crime dang......
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...was substantially amended on 3/13/84 effective 7/11/84 to detail notice and public hearing requirements.6 In People v. Principe, 65 N.Y.2d 33, 489 N.Y.S.2d 463, 478 N.E.2d 979, the Court again addressed the scope of eavesdropping permitted under the New York statute and reaffirmed the princ......
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