State v. Pottle

677 P.2d 1, 296 Or. 274, 1984 Ore. LEXIS 1030
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 24, 1984
DocketTC 20-567B, CA A22439, SC 29615 and 29616
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 677 P.2d 1 (State v. Pottle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Pottle, 677 P.2d 1, 296 Or. 274, 1984 Ore. LEXIS 1030 (Or. 1984).

Opinions

[276]*276CAMPBELL, J.

This case involves the legality of a wiretap. The trial court found the wiretap order to be sufficient on its face, held that defendant Pottle lacked “standing” to object to the lack of minimization in the conduct of the wiretap, and denied his motion to suppress the wiretap and the derivative evidence. The Court of Appeals reversed, found that Pottle had “standing,” suppressed the evidence and remanded for a new trial. 62 Or App 545, 662 P2d 351 (1983). We allowed review, restricting our review to the admissibility of the wiretap evidence.1 We affirm the Court of Appeals.

Christopher Tucker was found dead in his apartment in the early morning of December 14,1980. Because his death appeared to be a homicide, the police began an immediate investigation. Within a few days, they gathered information that led them to believe that Tucker’s widow, Mindi Tucker, and a friend of hers, defendant Craig Pottle, planned and executed Christopher Tucker’s death so they could share in the proceeds of his life insurance policy.

Mindi Tucker had separated from her husband a short time before his death, moving into a girlfriend’s apartment. The police obtained an ex parte order authorizing and approving the interception of certain wire communications involving this friend’s telephone on December 17,1980. They later obtained two extensions for this same wiretap. None of the people involved in this order, including the district attorney and the police officers, had ever attempted a wiretap before. Although the purpose of the wiretap was to obtain information about the murder of Christopher Tucker from the conversations of Mindi Tucker and Craig Pottle, every conversation was intercepted and recorded in its entirety, regardless of the parties involved or the subject matter of the conversation. The police intercepted a total of 958 telephone calls. Of this total, 15 calls were conversations between [277]*277defendant and Mindi Tucker and another six were defendant’s unsuccessful attempts to reach Mindi Tucker.

The police ended the wiretap on January 16, 1981, following the arrest of Mindi Tucker and Craig Pottle for the murder of Christopher Tucker.

At a pretrial omnibus hearing, the court granted Mindi Tucker’s motion to suppress all evidence from the wiretap, as well as all derivative evidence, finding that the police failed to minimize, that is, limit their interceptions to those conversations pertinent to the investigation.2

At the hearing on Pottle’s motion to suppress the same evidence, the omnibus hearing on Tucker’s motions was incorporated in its entirety. Pottle argued both to the trial court and the Court of Appeals that this wiretap evidence should be suppressed on several different grounds, including lack of probable cause to issue the order, facial invalidity of the order, lack of minimization in the conduct of the wiretap, (although he concedes his conversations could have been seized with a proper minimization order properly executed) and failure to seal the records promptly. The trial court denied his motion to suppress, and the jury found Pottle guilty of murder. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court, finding that Pottle has “standing” to object to the lack of minimization in the conduct of the wiretap, and this lack of minimization required suppression of the wiretap evidence. We agree the evidence must be suppressed, but on different grounds.

The order authorizing the wiretap reads as follows:

“IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON “FOR THE COUNTY OF WASHINGTON
“In the Matter of Interception ) Ex-parte Order Authorizing of Certain Communications ) and Approving the Interception ) of Certain Wire Communications ) )
“This matter came before the Court on the application under oath of Ray Robinett, the duly elected District Attorney of Washington County, Oregon, for an Order authorizing and approving the [278]*278interception of telephonic communications of Mindi Tucker with Craig Pottle. The sworn application was supported by affidavits.
“That this Court FINDS from the application and supporting affidavits and statements that:
“1. There is probable cause for belief that Mindi Tucker committed, aided and abetted the commission or conspired to commit the murder of Christopher Tucker on December 15,1980;
“2. That there is probable cause for belief that communications between Mindi Tucker and Craig Pottle concerning the murder of Christopher Tucker will be obtained through an interception of telephonic communications of Mindi Tucker;
“3. That normal investigative procedures have been tried and failed or reasonably appear to be unlikely to succeed if tried;
“4. There is probable cause to believe that the telephone of [Mindi Tucker’s roommate] is one commonly used by Mindi Tucker.
“Therefore, it is ORDERED that:
“1. The interception of telephonic communications of Mindi Tucker are approved and authorized by this order;
“2. That the telephonic instrument, [location and name of Mindi Tucker’s roommate] is the description and location of the facility from which the wire communication is to be intercepted pursuant to this order;
“3. That the communications to be intercepted are limited to telephone communications of Mindi Tucker which are made or received on the above described telephone which pertain to the murder of Christopher Tucker and the intended distribution of $75,000.00 insurance proceeds she expects to collect;
“4. That this interception order shall be carried out by the Washington County Sheriffs Office; the person authorizing the application is Lt. John Vallery of the Washington County Sheriffs Office;
[279]*279“5. This order will remain in effect for a period of 15 days from the date hereof and will not automatically terminate when the above described communications are received; it will terminate automatically upon the expiration of the above period unless extended pursuant to ORS 133.724 (5) and applicable provisions of said statute;
ÍÍ0 * * * * *
“7. The application, this order, all supporting documents and testimony in connection herewith shall remain confidential in the custody of the court and these matters shall not be released or information concerning them in any manner disclosed except upon written Order of this Court and as required under ORS 135.805 to 135.873; no person having custody of any records maintained under this Order pursuant to ORS 133.721 to 133.739 shall disclose or release any materials or information contained therein except under written Order of the Court as required under ORS 135.805 to 135.873.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Columbia Riverkeeper v. ODFW
345 Or. App. 213 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
State v. Klein
258 P.3d 528 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2011)
State v. Fleetwood
16 P.3d 503 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2000)
Saldana v. State
846 P.2d 604 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1993)
State v. Peterson
841 P.2d 21 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1992)
State v. Cornell
820 P.2d 11 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1991)
State v. Stockfleth
804 P.2d 471 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1991)
State v. Stockfleth
781 P.2d 1220 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1990)
State v. Perry
599 A.2d 759 (Superior Court of Delaware, 1990)
State v. O'BRIEN
774 P.2d 1109 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1989)
State v. Tucker
768 P.2d 397 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1989)
State v. Quinn
436 N.W.2d 758 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1989)
State v. Slowikowski
743 P.2d 1126 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1987)
Lang v. Lang
741 P.2d 1193 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. Tucker
740 P.2d 182 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1987)
State v. Lissy
737 P.2d 617 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1987)
State v. Dimeo
734 P.2d 391 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1987)
People v. Scarnati
133 Misc. 2d 795 (New York County Courts, 1986)
State v. Brown
721 P.2d 1357 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
677 P.2d 1, 296 Or. 274, 1984 Ore. LEXIS 1030, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pottle-or-1984.