Villano v. United States
Decision Date | 05 November 1962 |
Docket Number | No. 7060.,7060. |
Citation | 310 F.2d 680 |
Parties | Paul C. VILLANO, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Leslie H. Wald, Denver, Colo., for appellant.
James A. Clark, Asst. U. S. Atty. (Lawrence M. Henry, U. S. Atty., was with him on the brief), for appellee.
Before LEWIS, BREITENSTEIN and SETH, Circuit Judges.
The appellant-defendant was indicted, tried by jury and convicted within the District of Colorado of failing to pay the special occupational tax imposed on his business of accepting bets on the outcome of football games, 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 4411, 4412(a), 4901 and 7262. The single appellate contention is that the trial court erred in denying appellant's motion to suppress certain evidence obtained by state officers and admittedly material to and used against appellant in the federal prosecution. The evidence was obtained without authority of search warrant, warrant of arrest or as incident to lawful arrest. The trial court's refusal to suppress such evidence was based in part upon the conclusion that appellant was not a "person aggrieved" within the meaning of Rule 41(e), Fed.Rules Crim. Proc. and in part upon a finding that appellant had freely and expressly consented to the search which resulted in the seizure of evidence. Appellant and a Denver police officer testified as to the events and circumstances leading to the search and seizure.
Before dawn of the morning of October 8, 1960, members of the Denver police department awakened appellant by pounding on the door and ringing the bell at his residence. Upon being admitted to the home, the officers ordered appellant to get dressed and to accompany them for questioning. Appellant protested but did as the police ordered. His suit coat was searched and an envelope removed.1 Appellant testified that he protested again and tried to get back the envelope but was told that the officers could take anything they found. According to appellant he was then told to bring the keys to the place of his employment, a TV store, and when he replied that he did not have them was then told: "Well, we have to get them; we are going to break in anyway." Appellant and the officers then drove in a police car to the home of a third person where the keys were obtained and thence to the store where a search was conducted and two notebooks seized which became the subject of the motions to suppress.
Both notebooks were found in a desk used by appellant but appellant did not claim ownership to either. He asserted that several employees (including himself) used the notebooks. The entries in one book were entirely in the handwriting of appellant.
To this point in the incident there is no real conflict of the factual account of the occurrence in the testimony of the appellant and that of the police officer testifying for the government. The search of appellant's coat at his home is admitted as is the seizure at such time of an envelope. Appellant's continuing protests are admitted, the police sergeant testifying in such regard:
The threat of using force to gain entry to the TV store is impliedly admitted and then qualifiedly denied. On such subject the officer testified:
We think that but a single conclusion can be drawn from the combined testimony of appellant and the police officer: that entry was made into the TV store under an aura of complete domination by police using wrongful and coercive authority amounting to duress. And it follows that the concluding actions of appellant and the police that occurred after entry to the store must be considered as a climax to the constitutionally prohibited abuse premising the entry.
Appellant categorically denied that he consented to the search of the store or any portion of it; stated that he did point out the desk which he used and did pull open two unlocked drawers of the desk while the search of the desk progressed because "he (the police officer) was going to open them anyway."
The version testified to by the police differs. The officer testified twice upon the subject. At one time he stated:
and at another point in his testimony:
The government also places some emphasis upon the answers given by appellant in response to an inquiry by the trial court. Appellant had been arrested and searched before and the trial court inquired of him:
On this evidence, the court found that appellant waived his rights under the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution and consented to the search made by the police officers; and that, as regards the notebook used by other employees, that he was not a person aggrieved.
The question of whether the appellant was the victim of an invasion of privacy to make him a party aggrieved under Rule 41(e) with standing to move for the suppression of evidence obtained through the search concerns itself primarily with the 1960 Supreme Court holding in Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697, 78 A.L.R.2d 233. Appellant did not own the property searched — it was the property of his employer; he denied even a true possessory interest in the notebook seized; and the record does not establish that he had exclusive use of the desk wherein the incriminating material was found. Prior to the Jones decision, the courts of appeal were virtually unanimous in viewing as necessary a showing of "ownership," "right to possession," or "dominion" over the premises searched. See cases considered in Jones, pp. 265, 266, 80 S.Ct. pp. 733, 734; Wilson v. United States, 10 Cir., 218 F.2d 754. Of these cases and their reasoning the Supreme Court stated:
...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Lewis v. Cardwell
...D.C. 64, 190 F.2d 649, 651 (1951); Watson v. United States, 101 U.S. App.D.C. 350, 249 F.2d 106, 108 (1957); Villano v. United States, 310 F.2d 680, 684 (10th Cir. 1962); United States v. Page, 302 F.2d 81, 83 (9th Cir. 1962); State v. McCarthy, 20 Ohio App. 2d 275, 284-285, 253 N.E.2d 789 ......
-
Schneckloth v. Bustamonte 8212 732
...Judd v. United States, 89 U.S.App.D.C. 64, 66, 190 F.2d 649, 651; Channel v. United States, 285 F.2d 217 (9 Cir.); Villano v. United States, 310 F.2d 680, 684 (10 Cir.); United States v. Marrese, 336 F.2d 501 (3 30. '(In) the uniformly structured situation of the defendant whose case is for......
-
United States v. Sheard
...U.S. 865, 89 S.Ct. 146, 21 L.Ed.2d 133 (1968); Green v. United States, 128 U.S.App.D.C. 408, 389 F.2d 949 (1967); Villano v. United States, 310 F.2d 680 (10th Cir. 1962). A finding is not "clearly erroneous" unless the reviewing court is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mis......
-
United States v. Hoffa
...United States v. McGavic, 337 F.2d 317, 319 (C. A. 6, 1964) cert. denied 380 U.S. 933, 85 S.Ct. 940, 13 L.Ed.2d 821; Villano v. United States, 310 F.2d 680 (C.A. 10, 1962); United States v. Page, 302 F.2d 81 (C.A. 9, 1962); United States v. Mathis, 298 F.2d 790 (C.A. 6, 1962) cert. denied 3......