People v. Trief

Citation65 Misc.2d 272,317 N.Y.S.2d 525
PartiesThe PEOPLE of the State of New York v. George TRIEF, Defendant.
Decision Date09 December 1970
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court (New York)

Frank S. Hogan, New York City, for the People by Harry Hockhauser, Asst. Dist. Atty.

David M. Markowitz, New York City, for defendant.

CORRECTED DECISION

HAROLD BIRNS, Justice:

The defendant Trief, a former New York City police officer, one of several defendants charged under the former Penal Law with the crimes of conspiracy and accepting unlawful fees, moves to suppress evidence admittedly obtained by interception of telephonic communications (wiretapping) and eavesdropping (bugging). 1 The defendant also moves to dismiss [65 Misc.2d 273] the indictment for failure to prosecute.

The placing of the indictment of the defendant and others on the trial calendar obliged this court to consider the motion to suppress pursuant to the order of Mr. Justice Postel of May 28, 1969. The hearing on

the said motion did not occur until June 2, 1970 and briefs have now been submitted by each side
I

The defendant and others were indicted on June 28, 1968 following a lengthy investigation, which began in 1960 into organized unlawful gambling. The nature of this investigation required utilization of 'electronic surveillance'. Numerous court orders and renewals were obtained, the last order expiring in July, 1965.

Relying upon two recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Lee v. Florida, 392 U.S. 378, 88 S.Ct. 2096, 20 L.Ed.2d 1166 (1968), and Fuller v. Alaska, 393 U.S. 80, 89 S.Ct. 61, 21 L.Ed.2d 212 (1968), the defendant Trief asserts that the evidence so procured by telephonic interceptions from 1960 to 1965 may no longer be received in evidence, inasmuch as such procurement violated section 605 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934.

The District Attorney, conceding that the Lee and Fuller decisions, supra, proscribed the use of such evidence as violative of the said section 605, asserts that by the adoption of the Omnibus Crime Control & Safe Streets Act of 1968 (hereafter referred to as the Omnibus Act), Congress repealed said section 605. Hence, the District Attorney argues that because said section 605 'is no longer viable', there is no present bar to the receipt of such evidence (D.A.'s brief, p. 7), and inasmuch as the orders authorizing interception and divulgence were obtained during the years when such state authorized orders were lawful under the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Schwartz v. Texas, 344 U.S. 199, 73 S.Ct. 232, 97 L.Ed. 231 (1952), the issues of this motion should be resolved under the law as it then existed.

The following brief resume and chronology of some of the leading cases involving 'wiretapping' and construing section 605 are necessary for an appreciation and resolution of the contentions of the parties hereto.

In 1928, the first of these cases, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 48 S.Ct. 564, 72 L.Ed. 944, was decided. The Supreme Court of the United States held that tapping telephone wires and using such intercepted[65 Misc.2d 274] messages did not constitute an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment, inasmuch as no trespass into a constitutionally protected area and no seizure of anything tangible had occurred.

In 1928 no federal statute governed wiretapping. Section 605 in its original form was enacted in 1934, and provided '* * * No person not being authorized by the sender shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport effect, or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person * * *.' (47 U.S.C. § 605).

In 1937, the Supreme Court held in Nardone v. United States, 302 U.S. 379, 58 S.Ct. 275, 82 L.Ed. 314, that evidence obtained by wiretapping in violation of section 605 was inadmissible in federal courts. This ruling was not based on constitutional grounds, but rather on the court's supervisory powers over federal lower courts and federal officers.

In 1939, in a later appeal by Nardone, 308 U.S. 338, 60 S.Ct. 266, 84 L.Ed. 307, the Supreme Court went further, holding that section 605 not only bars evidence obtained directly by wiretapping, but also barred evidence obtained by the use of leads secured by wiretapping. In that same year, in Weiss v. United States, 308 U.S. 321, 60 S.Ct. 269, 84 L.Ed. 298, our highest court held that section 605 prohibited the divulgence of intrastate as well as interstate calls.

In 1942, in Goldstein v. United States, 316 U.S. 114, 62 S.Ct. 1000, 86 L.Ed. 1312, the Supreme Court held that only a party to a tapped conversation had standing to object to evidence so obtained.

In 1952, in Schwartz v. Texas, supra, the Supreme Court ruled that although it was a federal crime for State officers to divulge wiretapping evidence, section 605 did not render such evidence inadmissible in a State court. The Supreme Court, observing that Congress had not, by enacting said section 605, intended to impose a rule of evidence on state courts barring the acceptance of wiretap evidence, suggested, however, that such wiretapping activity by state law enforcement officers violated that section and was punishable under applicable federal penal statutes (Schwartz v. Texas, supra, 344 U.S. pp. 201--203, 73 S.Ct. 232).

In 1957, the Supreme Court held in Benanti v. United States, 355 U.S. 96, 78 S.Ct. 155, 2 L.Ed.2d 126, that wiretapping evidence obtained by state officers under sanction of state law, i.e., by court orders authorizing such interception and divulgence, could not be received in federal trials.

Also, in 1957, in Rathbun v. United States, 355 U.S. 107, 78 S.Ct. 161, 2 L.Ed.2d 134, the Supreme Court held that section 605 was not violated when police officers listened in on a telephone over an extension with permission[65 Misc.2d 275] of one party to the conversation, inasmuch as there was no forbidden 'interception'.

Benanti, supra, presaged Lee v. Florida, supra, where on June 16, 1968 the Supreme Court specifically overruled Schwartz v. Texas, supra, and finally held inadmissible in state criminal trials evidence violative of section 605. And within four months, in October, 1968, in Fuller v. Alaska, supra, the Supreme Court applied the exclusionary rule enunciated in Lee, supra, to trials in which such wiretap evidence is sought to be introduced after the date of the Lee decision. 2

In Lee, supra, the court expanded its previous applications of section 605 so as to preclude the receipt of wiretap evidence at state as well as federal trials and declared that the courts of the land, federal and state, were bound to obey 'The Laws of the United States'. Commenting upon continued reliance by state authorities on the ruling in Schwartz v. Texas, supra, explaining its reason for overruling that case, the court declared'that nothing short of mandatory exclusion of the illegal evidence will compel respect for the federal law 'in the only effectively available way--by removing the incentive to disregard it. '' (Lee, supra, 392 U.S. pp. 386 and 387, 88 S.Ct. p. 2101). 3

And while it is noted that in 1969 in Kaiser v. New York, 394 U.S. 280, 89 S.Ct. 1044, 22 L.Ed.2d 274, the court affirmed a conviction predicated on wiretaps obtained under a state order in 1964 (which order, as here, was obtained prior to the adoption of the Omnibus Act of 1968) the court was careful to point out that the trial in the Kaiser case [65 Misc.2d 276] occurred prior to its ruling that the Lee, supra, decision was only to be applied prospectively (Fuller v. Alaska, supra).

None of the latter cases (Lee, Fuller or Kaiser, supra) has considered the claim now argued by the District Attorney that said section 605 was repealed by the enactment of the Omnibus Act of 1968. Accordingly, it is now necessary to consider whether section 605 was actually repealed by the adoption of that statute. 4

The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 was intended 'to define on a uniform basis the circumstances and conditions under which the interception of wire and oral communications may be

authorized, to prohibit any unauthorized interception of such communications, and the use of the contents thereof in evidence in courts and administrative proceedings.' (Public Law, 90--351, sec. 801(b), vol. 1, 1968 U.S. Code Cong. & Adm. News, p. 253.) 5

Congress simultaneously reconsidered section 605 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934 by including in the Omnibus Bill, section 803 relating to 'unauthorized publication of communications'. Said section 803 of the Omnibus Bill and said section 605 are identical.

Section 605 was not repealed as the District Attorney urges. It was amended. It is still viable. The interception and divulgence of telephonic communications are still outlawed, '(E)xcept as authorized' by the Omnibus Crime Control Bill (47 U.S.C. § 605, as amended 6/19/68). This was the declared intent of Congress (S.R. 1097, as reported in U.S. Congressional Code and Administrative News, supra, p. 2196).

Thus, this court is obliged to hold that as to the telephonic interceptions made by police officers in this case under court authorizations during the years 1960--1965, the prospective applications of Lee v. Florida, supra, as enunciated in Fuller v. Alaska, [65 Misc.2d 277] supra, proscribes their introduction at a trial, and hence to this extent the motion of defendant Trief must be granted. 6

II

A different conclusion, however, is required of that branch of the motion addressed to the suppression of evidence obtained through eavesdropping (bugging). The technique of 'bugging' by police officials

herein did not involve the interception of telephonic communications. Therefore, consideration of this second branch of the motion does not require a consideration of said section 605 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934

This branch of the motion, however, does require consideration of...

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3 cases
  • United States v. Hall, 72-1841
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)
    • 19 Octubre 1973
    ...that § 605 as amended renders evidence of telephonic communications intercepted by police officers inadmissible. In People v. Trief, 65 Misc.2d 272, 317 N.Y.S.2d 525 (1970), aff'd mem., 37 A.D.2d 553, 323 N.Y.S.2d 659 (1971), the prosecution sought to introduce evidence obtained from teleph......
  • Allen v. Murphy
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
    • 29 Junio 1971
    ...of a wiretap would be prohibited in this proceeding (see also, People v. Iannaccone, 36 A.D.2d 747, 320 N.Y.S.2d 897; People v. Trief, App.Div., 317 N.Y.S.2d 525). In the case before us there was other evidence besides that obtained by the use of the wiretap. It is not immediately evident w......
  • People v. Trief
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
    • 29 Junio 1971
    ...(Birns, J.), entered on November 25, 1970, unanimously affirmed on the opinion of Mr. Justice Birns at Trial Term. No opinion. 65 Misc.2d 272, 317 N.Y.S.2d 525. STEVENS, P.J., and CAPOZZOLI, McGIVERN, MARKEWICH, and TILZER, JJ., ...

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