People v. Madori

153 A.D.2d 287, 550 N.Y.S.2d 924, 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1306
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 5, 1990
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 153 A.D.2d 287 (People v. Madori) 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. Madori, 153 A.D.2d 287, 550 N.Y.S.2d 924, 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1306 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Balletta, J.

Pursuant to CPL 700.50 (3): ”[W]ithin a reasonable time, but in no case later than ninety days after termination of an eavesdropping warrant * * * written notice of the fact and date of the issuance of the eavesdropping warrant, and of the period of authorized eavesdropping, and of the fact that during such period communications were or were not intercepted, must be served upon the person named in the warrant”. The primary issue presented on this appeal is whether the notice provision of the statute is satisfied when, within the 90-day period, the prosecution complies with CPL 700.70 by supplying the defendant with a copy of the eavesdropping warrant, and the application with supporting affidavits therefor. In this case, it should be noted, the prosecution also provided the defendant with copies of a search warrant and underlying application based upon the results of the eavesdropping and further stipulated to allow the defense counsel access to the tapes of the eavesdropping.

This case arises out of a 1986 investigation by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation of the New York State Police into suspected illegal gambling activities taking place in the Town of Harrison, Westchester County. In August 1986, based upon information provided by a confidential informant, a certain [289]*289Anthony Delia became a target of the investigation. Delia, as it turned out, is the defendant’s father-in-law and twice previously had been convicted of gambling-related offenses. As part of the investigation, an undercover police investigator placed two bets on the New York Yankees by calling a telephone number listed in the name of "A. Delia”. Based on this information, the People obtained an eavesdropping warrant on August 22, 1986, permitting a wiretap to be placed on Delia’s telephone line and permitting the interception of communications related to gambling activities for a period of up to 30 days.

The actual interception of calls to Delia’s line pursuant to the August 22, 1986 wiretap order did not begin until September 4, 1986. However, during the next 12 days, the police overheard nearly 400 conversations involving gambling activity, in which approximately $95,000 in sports bets were placed with Delia. Among the people heard discussing illegal gambling with Delia was the defendant Steven Madori. The defendant’s conversations with Delia involved the discussion of the daily betting line (the point spread), the distribution of football pool tickets, and the general operation of Delia’s gambling business. Based upon this information, on September 19, 1986, the People applied for, and obtained, a 30-day extension of the eavesdropping warrant, which was amended nunc pro tunc to include the defendant as a person whose communications were to be overheard and recorded.

Subsequently, a second eavesdropping warrant was obtained on September 29, 1986, permitting a wiretap to be placed on the two telephone numbers listed to the defendant and his wife at their Scarsdale home. In support of the application for this warrant, the People submitted an affidavit wherein a police investigator contended that the communications intercepted pursuant to the prior warrants indicated that the defendant was Delia’s partner and extensively involved in the gambling operation. The affidavit included transcriptions of several conversations between the defendant and Delia concerning the placement of bets.

Relying on evidence gathered as a result of this latter wiretap, the People obtained a search warrant for the defendant’s residence, which was executed by the police on October 20, 1986. At the defendant’s residence, the police discovered numerous gambling records on a desk in the defendant’s bedroom, and the defendant spontaneously stated that these [290]*290were records of his own bets, and that there was no way that the police could have had a wiretap on his telephone.

Pursuant to CPL 700.50 (2), the People applied for and obtained an order on October 28, 1986, sealing the communications recorded on the defendant’s line between September 30 and October 20. A second sealing order with respect to communications recorded on the Delia line between September 2 and October 19 was issued on November 18, 1986.

The defendant was subsequently indicted on the charge of possession of gambling records in the first degree, and was arraigned on January 9, 1987. At the arraignment, the People served defense counsel with copies of the August 22, 1986 warrant directed at Delia’s telephone line, the September 19, 1986 extension of that warrant, and the September 29, 1986 warrant directed at the defendant’s telephone lines. The People also served the defense counsel with copies of the applications and supporting affidavits upon which the warrants were issued, all in compliance with CPL 700.70, which provides that: "[t]he contents of any intercepted communication, or evidence derived therefrom, may not be received in evidence or otherwise disclosed upon a trial of a defendant unless the people, within fifteen days after arraignment and before the commencement of the trial, furnish the defendant with a copy of the eavesdropping warrant, and accompanying application, under which interception was authorized or approved”. The People further entered into a consent order on the same date, agreeing to the defendant’s inspection of "[ajny tapes or electronic recordings intended to be offered at the trial or hearings by the prosecution, and any transcripts thereof, if presently available or when they become available”.

Following his arraignment, however, the defendant moved to suppress the wiretap evidence and the evidence obtained from the search of his residence, inter alia, on the ground that the People had not complied with CPL 700.50 (3). The Supreme Court, holding that the statute must be strictly construed, suppressed the evidence on the ground that it was mandatory that the defendant, as the target of the September 29 wiretap, receive CPL 700.50 (3) notice.

We conclude, however, that under the circumstances herein, where, within 90 days of the termination of both eavesdropping warrants, the defendant was provided with copies of all the documents required to be furnished to him by CPL 700.70, giving him a greater amount of information than [291]*291is required by CPL 700.50 (3), suppression of the wiretap evidence was not warranted. In other words, the notice provision of CPL 700.50 (3) was satisfied in this case when the prosecution, within 90 days of the termination of the eavesdropping, fulfilled its obligation under CPL 700.70 by supplying the defendant, inter alia, with a copy of the warrants and the applications therefor.

On appeal, the People maintain that CPL 700.50 (3) should not be interpreted more strictly than its Federal counterpart (18 USC § 2518 [8] [d]), relying upon two Federal cases, United States v Variano (550 F2d 1330), and United States v Principie (531 F2d 1132), which specifically rejected the contention that the New York statute is to be interpreted more restrictively than the Federal statute. In further support of their position that both the Federal and State statutes should be uniformly interpreted, the People note that the legislative history reveals that the New York eavesdropping statute was intended to conform to the Federal statute, and that Federal-State uniformity is sound practice in this case.

The People also submit that suppression is not warranted based upon a consideration of the statutory purposes of the two notice sections.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 A.D.2d 287, 550 N.Y.S.2d 924, 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1306, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-madori-nyappdiv-1990.