In Re Buonacoure

412 F. Supp. 904
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 18, 1976
DocketMisc. No. 75-84, Civ. A. No. 75-3472
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 412 F. Supp. 904 (In Re Buonacoure) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Buonacoure, 412 F. Supp. 904 (E.D. Pa. 1976).

Opinion

412 F.Supp. 904 (1976)

In re Grand Jury Investigation, Americo BUONACOURE, a witness.
UNITED STATES of America ex rel., GRAND JURY INVESTIGATION,
v.
Americo BUONACURE, a witness.

Misc. No. 75-84, Civ. A. No. 75-3472.

United States District Court, E. D. Pennsylvania, Civil Division.

March 18, 1976.

*905 Joseph C. Santaguida, Jacob Kossman, Philadelphia, Pa., for petitioner.

Donald F. Manno, Sp. Atty., U. S. Dept. of Justice, Robert E. J. Curran, U. S. Atty., E. D. Pa., Philadelphia, Pa., for respondent.

OPINION

DITTER, District Judge.

This case involves an immunized witness who was jailed for contempt and subsequently indicted for activities related to those about which he refused to testify.[1] He has petitioned the court for release from incarceration or, in the alternative, to have the indictment dismissed. I conclude that he is not entitled to either remedy, and therefore relief must be denied.

On March 24, 1975, petitioner Americo Buonacuore was called before the grand jury sitting on Mondays in this district to testify about organized gambling activities which possibly constituted violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1955 and 371.[2] Invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, Buonacuore refused to provide any information. The Government thereafter moved, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 6001 et seq., for an order of immunization compelling his testimony. Buonacuore countered with a petition to quash his grand jury subpoena and to deny immunization. Following a hearing, I granted the Government's motion and refused Buonacuore's. He thereafter persisted in his refusal to answer questions propounded to him before the grand jury, and the Government moved for a contempt *906 citation.[3] After several hearings, at which considerable testimony relating to Buonacuore's health was received, on September 4, 1975, I found him to be in civil contempt,[4] and directed that he be committed to the custody of the Attorney General. On November 19, 1975, a different grand jury than that before which Buonacuore had been summoned to appear[5] returned a two-count indictment charging him and five other individuals with violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1955 and 371.[6]

Two petitions now are before the court.[7] Although seeking essentially identical relief, namely Buonacuore's release from custody, they are premised upon dramatically different claims. In the first, a habeas corpus petition, Buonacuore alleges that he is being held unlawfully because his "medical condition is such that his life is endangered by being in custody." The thrust of his second petition for release is that "where a defendant faces trial on an indictment and has not been given transactional immunity, he cannot be called as a witness before a Grand Jury and held in contempt for failure to testify."[8] Accordingly, he posits that either his indictment must be dismissed, a remedy which lies properly within the province of Judge Green, see note 6 supra, or he must be released from custody.

I need not tarry long on Buonacuore's habeas petition — it seeks release on grounds which I carefully considered and rejected prior to ordering his incarceration in the first place, i. e., his health. Before holding Buonacuore in contempt, I received evidence at length about his gall bladder surgery and alleged coronary problems. Disposition of the Government's motion was delayed until I was satisfied that recuperation following the surgery was complete and that incarceration would not endanger him. Nevertheless, as soon as he was ordered to prison, Buonacuore's complaints about his health accelerated in what I believe was a contrived campaign to regain his freedom. No objective evidence of any coronary difficulty was reported to me, but the nature of Buonacuore's symptomatology, though only subjective, made special examination and precautions necessary. Finally, I suggested that he be sent to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, where a full range of *907 diagnostic and treatment services are available. He remains there at this time.[9]

Federal law, 28 U.S.C. § 1826, plainly contemplates a relatively broad latitude in which a district judge may exercise his discretion in deciding whether to incarcerate a recalcitrant witness. Here, because of the demonstrated need for Buonacuore's testimony, his refusal to testify in the face of a grant of immunity, and my conviction that whatever medical problems he might have could more than adequately be dealt with in the medical facilities in which I could direct that he be incarcerated, I opted to order his confinement. Under such circumstances, my decision did not constitute an abuse of discretion and the habeas petition raises no new question in this regard.

Central to the resolution of petitioner's other claim — i. e., that he cannot remain jailed for contempt while under indictment for the activities about which he refused to testify — is a proper appreciation of the distinction between use immunity and transactional immunity. The former, of course, immunizes a witness against the use of his compelled testimony and evidence derived therefrom, while the latter precludes prosecution for offenses to which such testimony relates. Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 443, 92 S.Ct. 1653, 1655, 32 L.Ed.2d 212, 215 reh. denied, 408 U.S. 931, 92 S.Ct. 2478, 33 L.Ed.2d 345 (1972). In Kastigar, the Supreme Court held that use and derivative use immunity as provided by 18 U.S.C. § 6002 are substantially co-extensive with the scope of the privilege against compulsory self-incrimination embodied in the Fifth Amendment, and as such are sufficient to compel testimony over a claim of privilege. Id. at 453, 92 S.Ct. at 1661, 32 L.Ed.2d at 221.[10] Transactional immunity, on the other hand, the Court reasoned, affords broader protection than the Fifth Amendment and is not constitutionally required. Id.[11] An individual accorded use immunity "is not dependent for the preservation of his rights upon the integrity and good faith of the prosecuting authorities," since the statute imposes upon the prosecution the affirmative duty to prove that any evidence it proposes to use is derived from a legitimate source wholly independent of the compelled testimony. Id. at 460, 92 S.Ct. at 1665, 32 L.Ed.2d at 226.[12]

Here not only was the indictment against Buonacuore obviously based upon *908 evidence derived from sources wholly independent of anything he said — since he said nothing — but it was returned by a different grand jury than that before which he was contumacious. Neither prior nor subsequent to his indictment has he been called to testify before the grand jury which indicted him.

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412 F. Supp. 904, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-buonacoure-paed-1976.