State v. Vallas

547 A.2d 903, 16 Conn. App. 245, 1988 Conn. App. LEXIS 359
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedSeptember 20, 1988
Docket5696; 5697; 5726; 5727; 5728; 5732; 5750
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 547 A.2d 903 (State v. Vallas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Vallas, 547 A.2d 903, 16 Conn. App. 245, 1988 Conn. App. LEXIS 359 (Colo. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

Spallone, J.

The defendants have filed a total of seven appeals which were argued together. This opinion addresses all of the issues raised in those appeals.

The defendants, William Calash, William Girolomoni, Robert Iaquessa, Frank Rogers and Elliot Vallas appeal their convictions, following their conditional pleas of nolo contendere,1 to the crime of conspiracy to violate the state narcotic drug act in violation of General Statutes §§ 21a-277 (a) and 53a-48 (a). The defendants Iaquessa, Vallas and Rogers also appeal their convictions, following their conditional pleas of nolo contendere, to the crime of possession of a narcotic substance in violation of General Statutes § 21a-279 (a). Each plea of nolo contendere was conditioned on our review of the trial court’s denial of the defendants’ motions to suppress evidence that the defendants claimed was the product of an unreasonable search and seizure.

On January 28, 1986, the state’s attorney-for the judicial district of New Haven applied to the state wiretap panel, pursuant to Chapter 959a of the General Statutes; General Statutes §§ 54-41a through 54-41t; for [249]*249authorization to intercept calls to and from telephone facilities registered to the defendant Calash. The supporting affidavit, signed by state police detectives George Nobile and William F. Schaeffer, Jr., alleged that Calash was involved in a network that sold and distributed cocaine. The wiretap order was requested as an aid in discovering the source of the cocaine and the configuration of the distribution network. On January 31, 1986, the wiretap panel granted the application to tap two telephones in the Calash home and issued wiretap order 86-01, which was limited to run from January 31, 1986, to February 14, 1986. In compliance with the order, the Calash phones were tapped from January 31, 1986, until February 11, 1986, when the interceptions were terminated due to information received by the state police that Calash had moved to Florida.

Information gleaned from police surveillance, informants and wiretap order 86-01 led the state police to seek two additional wiretap orders. On February 26, 1986, the state wiretap panel approved the two applications, and wiretap orders 86-03 and 86-04 were issued. Order 86-03 authorized the interception of telephone transmissions received at the home of the defendant Girolomoni. Order 86-04 authorized the tapping of two telephones at a Branford business known as the Rendezvous Cafe, one a private business phone, the other a public pay phone. Both orders were limited to the period of time from February 12, 1986, to March 12, 1986.

As a result of the investigation conducted, which included information accumulated from police surveillance, informants and the successful wiretaps, the defendants were arrested and charged with various offenses arising out of their alleged narcotics dealings. Pursuant to a warrant, the residences of three defendants, Vallas, Iaquessa and Rogers, were searched and [250]*250various items were seized, including the narcotics that provided the basis of the charges of possession levied against those defendants. They filed motions to suppress those items seized during the searches of their residences, and all five defendants moved to suppress evidence obtained via the wiretap orders. The motions to suppress the evidence obtained pursuant to the search warrants were denied. Similarly, after an extensive evidentiary hearing, the motions to suppress evidence obtained as a result of wiretap orders 86-01, 86-03 and 86-04 were denied, with the exception of one transmission, concerning the defendant Vallas, which was intercepted during wiretap order 86-01.2

All five defendants subsequently withdrew their earlier pleas of not guilty and entered conditional pleas of nolo contendere, reserving their rights to appeal from the denial of their motions to suppress.

The defendants, individually in some instances, and collectively in others, raise the following claims of error: (1) the trial court erred in denying the motions to suppress wiretap evidence (a) because the wiretap order did not authorize twenty-four hour surveillance, (b) because the affidavit for order 86-04 did not support the finding of a “special need” which was required to lawfully tap the public pay phone at the Rendezvous Cafe, and (c) because there was an undue delay between the completion of the taping authorized by orders 86-03 and 86-04 and the delivery of the tapes to the wiretap panel which was in violation of General Statutes § 54-41i; (2) the trial court erred as to the defendant Vallas when it denied his motion to suppress the interceptions garnered under wiretap order 86-04 as the illegal fruit of the suppressed conversation intercepted under 86-01; and (3) the trial court erred in denying [251]*251the claims of the defendants Iaquessa, Rogers and Valias that there was insufficient information in the affidavit to support a finding that probable cause existed to search their residences.

I

A

As part of their first claim of error, all of the defendants urge upon us the proposition that the orders issued by the wiretap panel limited the telephone monitoring to twelve hours per day. The three wiretap orders all expressly stated that the interceptions were authorized “during the hours of 12:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.” The defendants claim that the language used restricted the monitoring activities to the hours between 12 noon and 12 midnight. The state contends that no such limitation was ordered, and that a common sense review of the orders, the application and the affidavits indicate that the police were authorized to maintain a twenty-four hour wiretap. We agree with the state’s position.

During the lengthy hearing on the defendants’ motions to suppress, the trial court determined that the wiretap panel’s reference to the hours of “12:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.” was ambiguous. As is proper when faced with an ambiguity; see State v. Santiago, 8 Conn. App. 290, 304-305, 513 A.2d 710 (1986); the trial court looked beyond the face of the order to the wiretap application and accompanying affidavits to determine the intent of the panel’s order. In addition to these documents, the court considered testimony that the investigating officers were seeking authorization for twenty-four hour surveillance.3 Schaeffer reiterated the statements contained in his affidavit accompanying the [252]*252wiretap application to the effect that narcotics dealing is not confined to any specific hours in a day, and that only twenty-four hour monitoring would yield productive results. In addition, Schaeffer testified that the officers in charge of the investigation, on receipt of the panel’s order, presumed their request for twenty-four hour surveillance had been granted. On the basis of the evidence adduced at the evidentiary hearing, the order and its appurtenant supporting documents, the court concluded that the intent of the wiretap panel was to authorize a twenty-four hour wiretap.4

The trial court was correct in its determination that the term “12:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.” is inherently ambiguous.5 See, e.g., United States v. Rosario, 820 F.2d 584, 585 (2d Cir. 1987); Warshaw v. Atlanta, 250 Ga. 535, 299 S.E.2d 552 (1983); Hurwitz v. Boyle, 117 N.J. Super.

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Bluebook (online)
547 A.2d 903, 16 Conn. App. 245, 1988 Conn. App. LEXIS 359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-vallas-connappct-1988.