Jacque Tirado, A/K/A Jacque Dante v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

689 F.2d 307, 50 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5774, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 25843
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 7, 1982
Docket585, Docket 81-4136
StatusPublished
Cited by78 cases

This text of 689 F.2d 307 (Jacque Tirado, A/K/A Jacque Dante v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jacque Tirado, A/K/A Jacque Dante v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 689 F.2d 307, 50 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5774, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 25843 (2d Cir. 1982).

Opinions

NEWMAN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents a recurring issue concerning application of the exclusionary rule barring use of evidence unlawfully seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment: whether the rule applies to bar use of such evidence in a proceeding different from the one for which the search was conducted. In Pizzarello v. United States, 408 F.2d 579 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 986, 90 S.Ct. 481, 24 L.Ed.2d 450 (1969), we decided that evidence unlawfully seized by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for use in criminal tax proceedings was barred from use in a subsequent IRS civil tax proceedings. In United States v. Janis, 428 U.S. 433, 96 S.Ct. 3021, 49 L.Ed.2d 1046 (1976), the Supreme Court decided that evidence unlawfully seized by local police officers investigating local wagering offenses was not barred from use in a subsequent federal civil tax proceeding. The Court left open the issue “whether the exclusionary rule is to be applied in a civil proceeding involving an intrasovereign violation.” Id. at 456 n. 31, 96 S.Ct. at 3033. In this appeal from a July 26, 1981 judgment of the United States Tax Court (Theodore Tannenwald, Judge), we must decide whether evidence allegedly seized unlawfully by federal narcotics agents for use in a narcotics prosecution is barred by the exclusionary rule in a subsequent federal civil tax proceeding. We thus encounter an alleged intrasovereign violation, which, unlike Pizzarello, has not been committed by officers of the agency bringing the civil proceeding. We conclude that the deterrence rationale of the exclusionary rule is not served by applying the rule to exclude evidence from a proceeding where the evidence was not seized with the participation or collusion of, or in contemplation of use by, agents responsible for the proceeding in which the evidence is presented. We therefore hold that the exclusionary rule is inapplicable to this case and affirm the judgment of the Tax Court.

I.

On August 3, 1972, pursuant to a search warrant, two agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and three officers of the New York City Police Department entered the Manhattan apartment of appellant Jacques Tirado. The five investigators were members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, a joint law enforcement unit drawn from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the New York state police, and the New York City police. Their warrant, issued by a justice of the New York Supreme Court, authorized a search of the apartment for “narcotics — -the means of committing a crime or offense, and the means of preventing a crime or offense from being discovered.”

In the apartment, in addition to cocaine and various drug adulterants and paraphernalia, the agents discovered and seized the following items relevant to this appeal: $38,865 in cash, rent receipts and notices for the apartment, a lease for the apartment in Tirado’s name, a notice to him regarding rental of a safe deposit box at a bank, several bank statements, a savings account passbook, parking tickets concerning two Rolls Royce automobiles, and several safe deposit box keys. Based largely on items seized during the search, the federal agents subsequently obtained search warrants for two safe deposit boxes registered to Tirado from which they seized $25,000 in cash and $10,000 worth of jewelry; they also learned the registration numbers of Tirado’s two Rolls Royces. Tirado was indicted and convicted in New York state court of possessing narcotics. His conviction was upheld by the Appellate Division and by the New York Court of Appeals. People v. Tirado, [309]*30947 A.D.2d 193, 366 N.Y.S.2d 140 (1st Dep’t 1975), aff’d mem., 38 N.Y.2d 955, 348 N.E.2d 608, 384 N.Y.S.2d 151 (1976).

Shortly after the searches of Tirado’s apartment and safe deposit boxes, the federal agents involved in the narcotics case met with an agent of the Internal Revenue Service and disclosed to him the results of the searches. The IRS then used this information to reconstruct Tirado’s income for 1972 and to issue a Notice of Deficiency based on its calculations. Tirado petitioned the Tax Court to redetermine the deficiency on the ground that the deficiency was based wholly on information illegally obtained or derived from the search of his apartment. As subsequently refined, his claim was that the items seized were beyond the scope of the warrant.1 In an opinion filed on April 10, 1980, Judge Tannenwald ruled that the language of the warrant was sufficiently broad to authorize seizure of all the items Tirado sought to suppress; the ruling did not reach the Government’s alternative argument that the exclusionary rule was inapplicable to this case. Tirado v. Commis-

sioner, 74 T.C. 14 (1980). The Court subsequently sustained the deficiency determination and entered a judgment for the Commissioner, from which Tirado appeals. We agree with the Tax Court’s conclusion — that it was proper to base the deficiency determination on the seized information — but reach it by a different path, holding the exclusionary rule inapplicable in the circumstances of this civil tax proceeding. We therefore have no occasion to determine the legality of the various seizures involved.2

II.

The Supreme Court has made it plain that the principal, if not the only, justification for excluding illegally seized evidence from governmental proceedings is to deter future governmental misconduct. United States v. Janis, supra, 428 U.S. at 446, 96 S.Ct. at 3028; see Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465, 486, 96 S.Ct. 3037, 3048, 49 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1976); United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347-48, 94 S.Ct. 613, 619-20, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974).3 The exclusionary rule [310]*310“is calculated to prevent, not to repair”; its purpose is “to compel respect for the constitutional guaranty in the only effectively available way — by removing the incentive to disregard it.” Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 217, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1444, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960). Current doctrine does not, however, take this principle to its furthest implication, which would require the exclusion of evidence whenever even a remote prospect of deterrence exists. Since use of the exclusionary rule impairs the search for truth even as it aids observance of constitutional limitations, standards for use of the rule must balance public needs against the claims of individual liberty.

The fact that evidence was seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment does not mean that it will be suppressed for every purpose in every proceeding. The Supreme Court has restricted application of the exclusionary rule to those circumstances where its deterrent effect would most likely be “substantial and efficient,” United States v. Janis, supra, 428 U.S. at 453, 96 S.Ct. at 3031, and has cautioned that any extension of the rule beyond its core application — normally, barring use of illegally seized items as affirmative evidence in the trial of the matter for which the search was conducted — must be justified by balancing the “additional marginal deterrence” of the extension against the cost to the public interest of further impairing the pursuit of truth. United States v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Adams
D. Connecticut, 2023
SHEPARDSON R. BLAIR v. UNITED STATES
District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2015
In re the Appeal of Burch
294 P.3d 1155 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2013)
U.S. Residential Management and Development, LLC v. Head
922 N.E.2d 1 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2009)
J.V. v. Allen County Department of Family & Children Services
875 N.E.2d 395 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2007)
United States v. Osama Awadallah
349 F.3d 42 (Second Circuit, 2003)
Jacobs v. Director, N.H. Division of Motor Vehicles
823 A.2d 752 (Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 2003)
STATE OF INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE v. Adams
762 N.E.2d 728 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2002)
United States v. Williams
181 F. Supp. 2d 267 (S.D. New York, 2001)
United States v. Bin Laden
126 F. Supp. 2d 264 (S.D. New York, 2000)
City of Omaha v. Savard-Henson
615 N.W.2d 497 (Nebraska Court of Appeals, 2000)
United States v. Heatley
41 F. Supp. 2d 284 (S.D. New York, 1999)
Marquart v. Commissioner
1998 T.C. Memo. 335 (U.S. Tax Court, 1998)
Consolidated Edison Co. of New York, Inc. v. United States
34 F. Supp. 2d 160 (S.D. New York, 1998)
Simpkins v. Snow
661 A.2d 772 (Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 1995)
Vara v. Sharp
880 S.W.2d 844 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)
M.A. Wolf v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
13 F.3d 189 (Sixth Circuit, 1993)
Reich v. Minnicus
886 F. Supp. 674 (S.D. Indiana, 1993)
Valdez v. Department of Revenue
622 So. 2d 62 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
689 F.2d 307, 50 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5774, 1982 U.S. App. LEXIS 25843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jacque-tirado-aka-jacque-dante-v-commissioner-of-internal-revenue-ca2-1982.