State v. Quinn

• Decision Date: 31 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. C7-88-14,C7-88-14
• Citation: 436 N.W.2d 758
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Petitioner, Appellant, v. Mara Therese QUINN, et al., Respondents.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 758

436 N.W.2d 758

STATE of Minnesota, Petitioner, Appellant, v. Mara Therese QUINN, et al., Respondents.

No. C7-88-14.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Jan. 31, 1989.

Rehearing Denied March 6, 1989.

Syllabus by the Court

The requirement of Minn.Stat. Sec. 626A.06 that a warrant authorizing a wiretap interception shall terminate upon attainment of the objective, under the circumstances existing in this case, will be read into the warrant notwithstanding the warrant itself omitted the statutory language.

Thomas L. Johnson, Vernon E. Bergstrom, Toni A. Beitz, Hennepin County Atty., Minneapolis, for appellant.

Michael McGlennen, A. Demetruis Clemons, Craig Cascarano, M.G. Singer, Minneapolis, for respondents.

Heard, considered and decided by the court en banc.

KELLEY, Justice.

As the result of a court order authorizing a wiretap, police intercepted conversations and later seized certain evidence implicating respondents in various types of criminal activity. The respondents moved to suppress the evidence contending that the warrant authorizing the wiretap on its face was fatally defective for failure to include a statutory phrase that the warrant "must terminate upon attainment of the authorized objective." Minn.Stat. Sec. 626A.06, subd. 4(h). By a split decision, a court of appeals panel affirmed a trial court order suppressing the evidence for that failure to comply literally with the statute. State v. Quinn, 422 N.W.2d 763 (Minn.App.1988). We granted the state's petition for further review. We conclude that the constitutional safeguard to the citizens' privacy rights was fully protected by substantial compliance with the statute's mandate. Therefore, we reverse.

The Minneapolis Police Department in the spring of 1985 commenced an investigation of a suspected shoplifting ring and fencing operation. An informant had provided police with information that a widespread "boost and return" fencing operation was being operated by Mara Quinn and Jerald Saliterman. During the course of a search of the Quinn residence made pursuant to a duly issued search warrant, officers observed empty clothes racks and other items and paraphernalia useful to and often employed in that type of a criminal enterprise. Police likewise questioned persons who admitted to having purchased merchandise at the Quinn residence for less than the normal retail price. Neighbors complained of the heavy traffic in and out of the Quinn residence. During the course of continuing surveillance operations later that fall, officers observed a number of people coming from the Quinn residence carrying what appeared to be bags full of merchandise. They also noted that although neither Quinn nor Saliterman appeared to be employed, they frequently brought bags of merchandise into the residence. Intermittently during the surveillance period several sources had provided the officers with information indicating that the suspected criminal activity was ongoing. Those informants also apprised the police that Saliterman and Quinn had associates working at stores, especially Dayton's, who assisted them in stealing. Police learned that customers "placed" orders with Quinn and Saliterman for stolen merchandise by telephone. As the result of a pen register on the telephone at the Quinn residence, police learned that large numbers of telephone calls were made to and from the residence. Saliterman had a criminal record. A number of the calls placed from the residence were to other convicted felons. A police initiated undercover operation proved to be unsuccessful when the targets recognized the undercover officer, but a police informant was able to purchase from Quinn property which was believed by authorities to have been stolen from Dayton's.

A well planned and successful burglary of Cedrics, an Edina retail store, occurred on October 6, 1985. Fifty-four fur coats valued at $354,770 were stolen. Eye witness evidence from a juvenile at the scene implicated Saliterman as well as three other persons, whom the pen register had identified as recipients of phone calls placed from the Quinn residence.

The police investigation of the suspected Quinn-Saliterman enterprise continued over a number of months. Some of the information furnished police by informants had been confirmed to the extent that the police had probable cause to believe that Quinn and Saliterman, and, perhaps others, were involved in a somewhat sophisticated, extensive, and high dollar volume criminal operation. However, those tips and follow-up investigative efforts had failed to produce sufficient evidence to convict either person, or any other person, of any crime which would be commensurate with the extent of their involvement in a scheme of this magnitude.

Separate from, and initially unrelated to, the on-going Minneapolis police investigation, Hennepin County deputy sheriff Walt Power independently learned from an informant that Norman Mastrian was selling stolen fur coats. Power arranged through the informant to be introduced to Mastrian in an undercover capacity. Pretending to be interested in purchasing fur coats Power engaged in purchase negotiations during which Mastrian admitted the coats he was selling were those stolen in the Cedrics burglary. Eventually the negotiations led to the purchase by Power of two of the coats in January 1986. ¹ During those negotiations, Mastrian had informed Power that he had access to 30 other coats, while nonetheless always insisting he was acting only as a middleman. A pen register placed on the phone at Mastrian's residence as well as the pen register on the Quinn telephone, confirmed a connection between Mastrian and Quinn-Saliterman by a number of telephone communications passing back and forth between the two residences.

The failure of normal traditional investigative techniques to produce sufficient evidence to convict the members of the gang of crimes, which the police by now were certain were being committed by persons involved in an operation run from the house at 1012 Thomas Avenue South, Minneapolis, the customary residence of suspects Mara Quinn, Gerald Saliterman, Edward Quinn and Greg Scholl, prompted the police, by necessity, to seek authority to place a wiretap on the house's telephone. An assistant Hennepin County attorney, with their aid, drafted the application, supporting affidavits, and a proposed warrant to be signed by a magistrate authorizing the wiretap. Those documents were then reviewed by the assistant county attorney's immediate superior, and later by the county attorney himself before they were presented to District Judge Patrick Fitzgerald on February 10, 1986. Judge Fitzgerald, after reviewing the documents, signed the warrant authorizing a wiretap surveillance. The warrant provided that its authority would automatically terminate either in ten days or when a suspect was charged. As provided by Minn.Stat. Sec. 626A.06, subd. 4(e) (1986), the warrant further provided that the authorization should not "automatically terminate when the described communication has been first obtained." The warrant did contain the minimization clause required by Minn.Stat. Sec. 626A.06, subd. 4(h). The warrant did not state that the wiretap authorization would terminate upon attainment of the authorized objective. See Minn.Stat. Sec. 626A.06, subds. 4(h), 5. This omission was the result neither of an intentional act nor secretarial error in the county attorney's office.

Officers conducting the wiretap had been trained in, and followed, procedures to minimize interception of conversations overheard. The conversations actually monitored were between persons who appeared to be purchasers of stolen goods, those involved in the "boost and return" operation, store personnel seemingly involved with the scheme, and with individuals who appeared to be involved with shoplifting. Of 565 telephone calls monitored, 231, or 41 percent related to criminal activity connected with the scheme.

Simultaneously with the wiretap, Deputy Sheriff Power's undercover negotiations with Norman Mastrian continued. Those negotiations ultimately resulted in an agreement by Mastrian to exchange 14 additional stolen coats for cocaine. Wiretap interceptions on the Quinn-Saliterman telephone also revealed that the person forming the connecting link between them and Mastrian was Terry Martin. On February 18, 1986, when Mastrian and Martin attempted to deliver 14 fur coats to Power, they were immediately arrested. ²

Though neither mandated by law nor the warrant itself, the assistant county attorney prepared and furnished a report, based upon logs of monitored conversations emanating to and from the Quinn-Saliterman residence. By statute and the warrant's specific terms, the wiretap authority ended at 11:42 a.m. on February 20. Approximately 20 minutes later a complaint charging Mastrian and Martin with possession of 14 stolen fur coats was filed. ³

The investigation into the activities of the ring continued beyond the termination of the wiretap. As a result of the interceptions, stolen property was recovered, identified and inventoried and police were able to locate and interview witnesses including owners of some of the stolen property. ⁴ On May 15, 1987 complaints alleging a number of counts of receiving stolen property were filed against Quinn, Saliterman and five others.

Because the discovered activities of Quinn and Saliterman may have likewise violated federal criminal statutes, Minneapolis and Hennepin County law enforcement agencies relayed the information uncovered during the investigation to local federal authorities. In May and August 1987, federal grand jury indictments were returned and filed charging Quinn, Saliterman, and others with various federal criminal offenses.

Pre-trial motions to suppress the evidence from the wiretap were made in both the federal and the state court. ⁵ The hearing on the suppression motion pending in state court was deferred...