People v. Stievater

71 Misc. 2d 29, 335 N.Y.S.2d 530, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1615
CourtNew York County Courts
DecidedAugust 24, 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 71 Misc. 2d 29 (People v. Stievater) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York County Courts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Stievater, 71 Misc. 2d 29, 335 N.Y.S.2d 530, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1615 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1972).

Opinion

Frank R. Bayger, J.

In January 1971, an Erie County Grand Jury began an investigation into matters related to the county’s [30]*30proposed construction of a domed sports stadium. A similar inquiry had been previously commenced by Federal authorities. The county investigation resulted in the return of this indictment charging these defendants with the crimes of conspiracy and bribery. The defendants are members of Buffalo, New York and Houston, Texas architectural firms which were retained by the county in connection with the proposed construction. This indictment alleges that they conspired with each other and with a certain J. Lloyd Walker, a member of the Buffalo firm who is named as a coconspirator but not as a defendant, to bribe certain members of the Erie County Legislature so as to influence their vote on stadium legislation. A second count alleges that they did in fact solicit and aid Walker’s payment of money to unnamed legislators for that purpose.

During the course of these simultaneous but independently conducted investigations, each of these defendants was subpoenaed to appear before both the Federal and State Grand Juries. In each, they indicated an intention to refuse to testify or otherwise co-operate with the authorities, on the grounds of their constitutional privileges against self incrimination. They were thereupon excused by the State authorities and did not appear before the County Grand Jury. The Federal authorities elected to compel their testimony however and each defendant was granted immunity from prosecution pursuant to section 2514 of title 18 of the United States Code. Upon being thus immunized from prosecution and compelled to testify by prder of the local United States District Court, each of these defendants freely informed the Federal Grand Jury as to their knowledge of and joint participation in the bribery of certain members of the County Legislature.

The' Federal investigation resulted in the indictment, trial and conviction of two county legislators for violations of Federal statutes .relating to conspiracy and interstate activity violative of State laws relating to bribery. (U. S. Code, tit. 18, §§ 371, 1952.) The defendants Lloyd, Jones and Morris were not called by the United States Attorney to testify upon the legislators’ trial, on the grounds that their testimony would be cumulative and unnecessary to the government’s case.

The defendants have now moved to dismiss this indictment on the grounds that it refers to matters identical to those about which they were compelled to testify in the Federal investigation and as to which they were thereupon immunized from prosecution under section 2514. It is their contention that they thereby acquired a “ transactional ” immunity which is binding [31]*31upon both State and Federal courts and which totally precludes this- indictment or any -other prosecution by either State or Federal authorities for any crimes to which their Federally compelled testimony referred.

The defendants are joined and supported in this argument by the United States Department of Justice which has appeared upon this motion as amicus curiae and strenuously urged a dismissal of the indictment upon the same grounds as urged by the defendants. In oral argument the Assistant United States Attorney formerly in charge of the local Organized Crime Task Force Unit and who headed this stadium investigation argued, with the specific approval of the United States Attorney General, that he had deliberately used section 2514’s transactional immunity pursuant to his department’s advice in an effort to obtain the fullest possible co-operation of these defendants and that he had in fact assured them that that immunity applied to all courts, State and Federal.

The People do not deny, and this court’s review of some of the defendant’s Federal Grand Jury testimony confirms, that the indictment under consideration does refer to the same matters and transactions concerning which the defendants were compelled to testify during the Federal investigation. The People contend however that they neither used that testimony, nor derived any leads therefrom, nor gained any benefit whatsoever from that testimony. They claim, without contradiction, that the present indictment is the result of a totally independent investigation by the County Grand Jury, unaided in any manner by the earlier Federal inquiry. They also argue with substantial merit that the Federal authorities were constitutionally required to confer nothing more than a “ use and derivative use ” type of immunity upon these defendants in order to compel the desired co-operation and testimony (cf. Kastigar v. United States, 406 U. S. 441). Therefore, while conceding ithe constitutionality of section 2514 and the fact that it purports to grant transactional immunity and that these defendants testified in the Federal proceedings under the protection of that statute, and the fact that, in a proper case, Federal immunity statutes may be binding upon the several States, the People contend that under the circumstances of this case, to unnecessarily impose such immunity upon a State court so as to bar independent State prosecution for State crimes would be an unconstitutional application of the statute.

Section .2514 provides in pertinent part that: “ No such witness shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture [32]*32for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which he is compelled, after having claimed his privilege against self-incrimination, to testify or produce evidence, nor shall testimony so compelled be used as evidence in any criminal proceeding * * # against him in any court.”

This section was intentionally patterned after similarly worded Federal statutes previously held to constitutionally confer complete transactional immunity from State as well as Federal prosecutions. (1968 U. S. Cong. & Adm. News 2112, 2184; cf. Brown v. Walker, 161 U. S. 591; Adams v. Maryland, 347 U. S. 179; Ullman v. United States, 350 U. S. 422; Reina v. United States, 364 U. S. 507.) Those rulings have been continually reaffirmed by the Supreme Court and their propriety was again recognized by the court in Kastigar v. United States (406 U. S. 441, supra) as recently as May of this year.

Section 2514 itself has been authoritatively held to be a constitutional exercise of Congressional power under the supremacy clause of the Constitution and, as such, capable of precluding State as well as Federal prosecution of an immunized witness for any crime to which his testimony referred (Matter of Parker, 411 F. 2d 1067; Carter v. United States, 417 F. 2d 384; United States v. George, 444 F. 2d 310).

The foregoing authorities require a dismissal of this indictment; and there is nothing in Murphy v. Waterfront Comm.

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Related

People v. Stievater
41 A.D.2d 435 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
71 Misc. 2d 29, 335 N.Y.S.2d 530, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-stievater-nycountyct-1972.