People v. Koutnik

44 A.D.2d 48, 353 N.Y.S.2d 197, 1974 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5480
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 14, 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 44 A.D.2d 48 (People v. Koutnik) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Koutnik, 44 A.D.2d 48, 353 N.Y.S.2d 197, 1974 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5480 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

Murphy, J.

Between October, 1960 and June, 1964, the New York County District Attorney’s office actively and extensively investigated alleged police involvement in certain illicit gambling operations in New York City. During the course of that investigation 107 wiretaps and eavesdropping orders were obtained for 39 different locations. As a result of such electronic surveillance, plus observations made by the prosecutor’s investigators, appellants were indicted in 1968. The gravamen of the multi-count indictment is that, between June, 1962 and June, 1964, they conspired to solicit and receive unlawful fees for permitting illegal gambling operations to be conducted.

On September 28, 1970 appellants’ motion to suppress all evidence adduced as a result of wiretaps was granted on the ground that they violated section 605 of the Federal Communications Act (U. S. Code, tit. 47, § 605) and were therefore inadmissible in this State court proceeding. (Lee v. Florida, 392 U. S. 378; Fuller v. Alaska, 393 U. S. 80.) We unanimously affirmed the suppression order. (People v. Trief, 37 A D 2d 553.) Some nine days later the Court of Appeals decided People v. Feinlowitz (29 N Y 2d 176) which, in effect, held that Congressional enactment of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (U. S. Code, tit. 18, § 2511 et seq.), substantially amending section 605, sanctioned the use of wiretaps authorized prior to its effective date, provided there was substantial compliance with the newly enacted provisions. The majority of the court in Feinlowitz then held that substantial compliance was shown in that case since the single wiretap was judicially supervised, section 813-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure had been fully complied with and probable cause for the challenged seizure clearly indicated. We thereupon granted the People’s motion for reargument and, upon reargument, vacated our prior order of affirmance, reversed the order of suppression and [50]*50remanded the ease to ‘ ‘ pass upon the validity of the specific wiretap orders in question, taking into account the affidavits upon which they were based and the procedure followed in obtaining them ’ ’. (People v. Trief, 37 A D 2d 771.)

A hearing pursuant to our direction was then held. The Trial Judge examined each of the 107 orders and underlying supporting affidavits and concluded that since the applicant and issuing Judge in almost every case were the same, the Justice granting the orders was sufficiently familiar with the over-all history and progress of the investigation to satisfy the recently enunciated Congressional policy of allowing “ courtroom use of judicially supervised and controlled wiretaps ”. (People v. Feinlowits, supra, p. 185.)

Following the denial of the motion to suppress the evidence derived from the execution of the 107 orders, all appellants except Leigh and Allen pleaded guilty to the first count of the indictment, charging conspiracy to commit the crime of taking unlawful fees, in satisfaction of all charges, and were fined, sentenced to the New York City Penitentiary for terms not exceeding nine months, or given suspended sentences. Execution of all prison terms has been stayed pending this appeal. Appellants Leigh and Allen were convicted of the same charge after a nonjury trial and received suspended six-month terms of imprisonment and $250 fines or six months’ imprisonment. The fines were paid.

Pursuant to agreement, Leigh and Allen were tried on a stipulated trial record consisting, inter alia, of the transcript of their police departmental trial and exhibits introduced thereat (which resulted in their dismissal from the police service for misconduct). Among the evidence included in said stipulation (subject to a continuing objection to their admissibility) were certain tape recorded conversations; excerpts from appellants’ memorandum books; a certain collection of papers seized from an alleged gambler and coconspirator, Boceo Errichetti, referred to as the ‘ ‘ Bock Papers ’ ’; and the testimony of a “ stipulated expert ” on gambling offenses who decoded the gambler’s jargon used by the parties and cross-referenced the Bock Papers, the defendants ’ telephone conversations and their memo book entries for the trial court.

The principal evidence in the case against Leigh and Allen centered around the Bock Papers which were seized pursuant to a search warrant. These documents consisted, essentially, of instructions as to how to receive, record and relay information pertaining to “protected ” gambling locations and [51]*51warnings of impending police action; and entries made pursuant to said instructions. Lieutenant Comperiati, the Police Department’s “ expert ” in policy and gambling cases, though unable to identify the author of the Rock Papers and conceding that Leigh and Allen’s names did not appear therein, by comparing taped telephone conversations between Leigh or Allen with Errichetti with material contained in their own memo books and entries in the Rock Papers, attempted to establish their involvement in the conspiracy.

The Rock Papers also contain notations indicating payments made by, or due from, the operators of gambling locations. But nothing contained therein indicates that appellants solicited or received any moneys for permitting gamblers or others to conduct their illegal operations in violation of law. Nor does any or all of the other evidence in the case sustain the charge of conspiracy to commit the crime of taking unlawful fees as there is no evidence at all in the record of an agreement to take money, a request for money, a conversation or discussion concerning the passing of money or the actual passing of money. This element of the crime has not been proven. However, even if we assume, arguendo, that the services rendered by these dismissed former policemen were not gratuitous, that their disclosed involvement in obtaining lists of protected locations from Errichetti and their disclosure to him of impending police action were sufficient to exclude every hypothesis other than their guilt of conspiring to receive unlawful fees for their corrupt work (People v. Williams, 41 A D 2d 711), and that the Rock Papers were properly connected with, and admitted against, Leigh and Allen (People v. Wheatman, 31 N Y 2d 12) — the crucial issue in all of these cases is the admissibility of the recorded conversations or, more succinctly, the sufficiency of the affidavits on which the eavesdropping orders were obtained. Without the evidence sought to be suppressed, it may be assumed that the prosecutor’s cases against each appellant would be effectively destroyed. Indeed, the People so stated, as they were required to do, when prosecuting their appeal from the original order granting the suppression motion. (Code Grim. Pro., § 518-a.)

A complicating factor is that not all defendants have standing to attack all of the orders. For appellate purposes, the parties have entered into a stipulation identifying the particular defendants who may challenge specified orders and their supporting affidavit. In summary, all or some of the appellants have standing to challenge 42 orders and lack standing to chai[52]*52lenge the remaining 65.

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155 Misc. 2d 775 (New York Supreme Court, 1992)
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Bluebook (online)
44 A.D.2d 48, 353 N.Y.S.2d 197, 1974 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-koutnik-nyappdiv-1974.