State v. Anonymous

30 Conn. Supp. 302
CourtConnecticut Superior Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1973
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 30 Conn. Supp. 302 (State v. Anonymous) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Anonymous, 30 Conn. Supp. 302 (Colo. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

David M. Shea, J.

The defendant is charged with two counts of pool selling in violation of General Statutes § 53-295. He was arrested on a bench [303]*303warrant issued by tlie Superior Court in reliance on an affidavit of a state police officer stating various details of telephone conversations which the officer had overheard in accordance with an authorized wiretap. There can be no serious question as to the sufficiency of the facts stated in the affidavit to support a finding of probable cause.

I

The defendant claims, however, that in an affidavit of another state police officer, submitted by the state’s attorney in support of an application for extension of the wiretap which was denied, the affiant swore that “as of this date insufficient evidence has been obtained from the monitoring of the aforementioned telephone facilities to warrant the arrest and prosecution of . . . [the defendant] for conducting an illegal bookmaking operation.” This affidavit appears to have been executed on the date of the application for extension. The state does not claim that any additional evidence against the defendant was obtained after the execution of this affidavit.

The defendant claims that the state is estopped from representing to the court in the bench warrant application that there was probable cause to arrest him on the charges made, because of the inconsistent position the state had taken by submitting the previous application for extension of the wiretap. The principle of judicial estoppel is claimed to bar the state in such a situation.

An essential ingredient of an estoppel is some action or detriment suffered by the party claiming the estoppel in reliance on the act or statement forming the basis for the estoppel. 28 Am. Jur. 2d, Estoppel and Waiver, § 28. It is generally held, therefore, that a judicial estoppel does not arise merely from taking an inconsistent position in a [304]*304proceeding but only when the inconsistency first asserted has been successfully maintained so that it appears unjust to the other party to allow a change. Td. § 70. The denial by the wiretap panel of the application for extension precludes any finding of detriment suffered by the defendant from assertion of the earlier inconsistent position by the state. Although judicial policy might dictate dispensing with the requirement' of detriment or reliance on the part of the one claiming the benefit of an estoppel where inconsistent positions on a factual matter are taken by a party having actual knowledge of the facts, as in the case of inconsistent allegations in pleadings, no such policy considerations are involved here. Hoard v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 122 Conn. 185, 192. The assertion in the first affidavit that there was insufficient evidence to arrest the defendant is merely the expression of a legal- conclusion. Assuming that the conclusion was that of the state’s attorney as well as of the layman who signed the affidavit, no principle of public policy would prevent the state’s attorney from changing his opinion about the sufficiency of the evidence at some later date. His opinion, one way or the other, carries no weight with the court, which must make its own determination.

II

Idle defendant makes a further claim that the disclosure of the contents of the intercepted wire communications in the affidavit submitted in support of the bench warrant application was in violation of General Statutes ^ 54-4H, which provides: “The contents of any intercepted wire communication or evidence derived therefrom shall not be received in evidence or otherwise disclosed in any trial, hearing or other proceeding- in a court of this state unless each aggrieved person, not less than thirty days before such trial, hearing or proceeding, has [305]*305been served with a copy of the court order, and accompanying application, under which the interception was authorized.” It is claimed that the issuance of a bench warrant is a “proceeding” within the meaning of § 54-411. The state concedes that no copy of the application and order for the wiretap was served on the defendant until after issuance of the bench warrant, when a copy of those documents was sent to the defendant’s attorney at his request. It is obvious that the affidavit supporting the bench warrant contained facts obtained by means of the wiretap.

A similar question was presented in United States v. Lanza, 341 F. Sup. 405, 420, where an almost identical provision of the federal wiretap statute (18 U.S.C. §2518 [9] [1970]) was involved and the contents of the intercepted telephone calls had been revealed to a federal grand jury prior to compliance with the provision requiring a copy of the application and order for the wiretap to be furnished. After reviewing the legislative history of the statute, it was concluded that the word “proceeding” was limited to adversary-type hearings .and did not include a grand jury hearing. The same view of the scope of the word “proceeding” was taken in United States v. Friedland, 444 F.2d 710, 712.

In Gelbard v. United States, 408 U.S. 41, relied on by the defendant, a different provision (18 U.S.C. § 2515) of the federal wiretap act was involved, which expressly provided that “no part of the contents of such communication and no evidence derived therefrom may be received in evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, officer, agency, regulatory body, legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, ... if the disclosure of that information would be in violation of [306]*306this chapter.” Since the case involved the right of witnesses before a grand jury to refuse to answer questions based on an alleged illegal electronic surveillance without being given an opportunity to challenge such illegality, the question of the scope of the word “proceeding” as used in the federal wiretap provision (18 U.S.C. §2518 [9]) corresponding to General Statutes § 54-411 was not considered. It should be noted, however, that the four dissenting justices quoted with approval the legislative history which states that the word “proceeding” as used in that section was intended to include only adversary-type hearings, not including a grand jury hearing.

Although the issuance of a bench warrant pursuant to General Statutes § 54-43 may generally be termed a “proceeding,” more precisely it is the initiation of a criminal proceeding against the defendant. It is inconceivable that the legislature intended, where sufficient evidence, including any conversations intercepted by a lawful wiretap, was available to justify an arrest, that the suspected criminal be given thirty days’ notice before any arrest could be made. No constructive purpose would be served by giving any such notice in advance of the issuance of an arrest warrant, unless it be claimed that the warrant could not be issued without affording an opportunity for a hearing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 Conn. Supp. 302, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-anonymous-connsuperct-1973.