People v. Soto Zaragoza

99 P.R. 739
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedMarch 17, 1971
DocketNo. CR-70-51
StatusPublished

This text of 99 P.R. 739 (People v. Soto Zaragoza) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Soto Zaragoza, 99 P.R. 739 (prsupreme 1971).

Opinion

PER CURIAM :

Appellants were tried and convicted of having bolita and/or bolipool material in their possession (33 L.P.R.A. § 1250). Each one of them was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

They assign that the trial court erred:

1. — In denying the motion for the suppression of evidence because the statement of the undercover agent upon which the search warrant was grounded is false; said order is unreasonable and oppressive, issued without probable cause; it does not specifically describe the objects to be seized, and finally, because “the search operation was taken as a subterfuge for a police raid since instead of making the detention when he allegedly saw the bolita material in the hands of a person, he waited two days in order to do so through a search warrant.”

2. — In convicting appellants on the basis of false and incredible evidence.

3. — In admitting in evidence the proof product of the search which instead of being in legal custody was in the prosecuting attorney’s office.

4. — In refusing to grant the defense the right to examine the sworn statement of a witness for the prosecution who was waived by the prosecuting attorney at the trial.

Let us see, first of all, the facts of the case.

[742]*742The sworn statement of officer Padilla which was used as a basis for the issuance of the search warrant is correctly summarized by the Solicitor General thus:

“On Monday, March 11, 1968, at about 11 p.m. while officer . Padilla was at the Carolina square, Antonio Ramírez, k/a Toño, with whom the officer had been previously acquainted, went by in a yellow Chevrolet license plates No. 750-373. Antonio Ramirez stopped, they talked for a while and officer Padilla asked him whether he had already gone to the house of an individual named Roque Estrada to collect the bolita material. Ramirez answered him that he had, and that he had it in the car. When the officer asked him where he was going, the latter answered that he was going to the Sabana Garden Development and invited the officer to follow him with his car. Ramirez arrived at Street 18 corner to 19, and alighted. Padilla asked him whether he was going to leave the bolita material there, Ramirez answered in the affirmative and proceeded to take from 20 to 30 rolled lists of paper from the right-hand side pocket of his trousers. Padilla asked him if that was all the material there was, and Ramirez answered that there was enough lists because the numbers that were wagered in those lists amounted to a great amount of money. He opened one of the packages and showed him a list where there were from 15 to 20 three-digit numbers followed by a dash and other numbers to the right, in amounts of 5, 3 and 2 dollars. He arranged the lists again, tied them with rubber bands and went with said lists to residence No. 19, he knocked at the door and a white lady opened it and Antonio Ramirez gave her the lists. Afterwards they went to Stop 18, where a friend of Ramirez was going to give him some tips on horses.”

Said officer having been examined by a magistrate in regard to the aforementioned statement, the latter understood that' there was probable cause to issue the search warrant which authorized the search of the property in question seeking “everything connected with the illegal game of bolita.”

The evidence shows that the day the search was going to take place, Padilla showed the house to other officers of the Vice Squad Division; that they entered the same after they [743]*743knocked at the door which was opened for them; that . . There they took Miguel Aponte and Nicolás A. Pérez by surprise, sitting in chairs and working on a porcelain table with a great number of lists, three-digit numbers followed by a dash and other amounts to the right. Defendant, Miguel Aponte, operated an adding machine and Nicolás Pérez was working with some lists. At the back part of the roorri, to the left away from the bed there were three chairs. On one of them defendant, José Soto Zaragoza, operated an adding machine, and facing him on the bed there were a number of lists and packages containing three-digit numbers, dash, and other amounts to the right. On the bed there were a great deal of packages and lists containing three-digit numbers followed by a dash and other amounts to the right. Photographs were taken of the room described and of the exterior of the residence. As a whole, one thousand four hundred and twenty-eight (1,428) lists of paper of different sizes and colors containing three-digit numbers, dashes, spaces, other amounts to the right, others with double dash, single and amounts to the right were seized. Also the following was seized, five hundred and eleven (511) bolipool notebooks, nineteen (19) check lists on the back of which, according to a testifying policeman, by his experience, the individuals write the total of all and each one of the lists of numbers they receive, three boxes of rubber bands, large and small rolls of papers, used for the adding machines, four boxes of clips, paper, red and blue pencils, a brief case which was under appellant, Miguel A. Aponte, a colt revolver, a holster, a license to have and possess a firearm belonging to Carlos Muñoz and a box containing nine revolver bullets.”

a

“On the person of defendant José Soto Zaragoza, when he was being searched they found two lists of paper which had numbers written on it, a dash, a space, and different amounts [744]*744to the right; a cardboard with numbers written on it, a check in the amount of $2,216 of Banco Mercantil issued by some Manuel Fernández Corujo and $886 in cash. All this evidence was in the hands of the officer who conducted the search and it was taken to the Court of Investigations, where it remained in possession of the court.

“Likewise, upon being searched, material connected with the bolita game was found on the person of Miguel Ángel Aponte Hernández.”

The evidence for the defense sought to establish the falsity of Padilla’s sworn statement on the basis that Antonio Ramirez knew him and was aware of the fact that he was an undercover agent since long before the time when according to Padilla he saw the witness and talked with him about the bolita material which Ramirez was carrying.

1-2. The sworn statement of officer Padilla was sufficient to support the determination of probable cause. People v. Superior Court, 97 P.R.R. 504, 506, 508 (1969); People v. Luciano, 83 P.R.R. 395 (1961); Edmondson v. United States, 402 F.2d 809, 813 (10th Cir. 1968); Manderosian v. United States, 337 F.2d 759 (1st Cir. 1964); Minovitz v. United States, 298 F.2d 682 (D.C. Cir. 1962).

Appellants argue that there was no basis to order the seizure of “everything connected with the illegal game of bolita”, but certain lists which were the object of visual perception on the part of the officer. We do not agree. In these cases a technical and restricted interpretation of the officer’s statement is not necessary. A search warrant where the articles or things to be seized are not mentioned, but the “instruments of the crime”, has been sustained. People v. Superior Court, supra. In

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99 P.R. 739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-soto-zaragoza-prsupreme-1971.