United States v. Barona

56 F.3d 1087, 1995 WL 329267
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 5, 1995
DocketNos. 90-50519, 90-50536, 90-50686, 90-50687, 90-50691 and 90-50694
StatusPublished
Cited by63 cases

This text of 56 F.3d 1087 (United States v. Barona) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Barona, 56 F.3d 1087, 1995 WL 329267 (9th Cir. 1995).

Opinions

Opinion by Chief Judge WALLACE; Concurrence by Judge TANNER; Dissent by Judge REINHARDT.

WALLACE, Chief Judge:

Following extensive investigation, including wiretaps in foreign countries, the appellants were indicted and convicted of drug-related crimes. The district court had jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We have jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

I

The issues we discuss arose in the context of a criminal prosecution of six individuals for an ongoing conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Mario Ernesto Villabona-Alvarado (Villabo-na) and Brian Bennett organized and supervised the operation. Cocaine from Colombia entered the United States through a source named “Oscar.” The cocaine was then delivered by Maria Barona and Luz Janneth Martinez to Michael McCarver and Michael Harris for further distribution.

Several events led to the identification of this conspiracy and its participants. Between 1985 and 1987, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Los Angeles Police Department conducted a money-laundering investigation code-named “Operation Pisces.” The result of this investigation was [1090]*1090the arrest of Leonardo Gomez in ViUabona’s residence. Then in December 1987, Villabo-na and Bennett traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, and registered at the Savoy Hotel. On December 7, 1987, Villabona, his wife (Helle Nielsen), and Bennett traveled to Aal-borg, Denmark, to stay with Nielsen’s parents. While in Aalborg, Villabona placed calls from the Nielsen residence and from a public .telephone. On December 8, 1987, Vil-labona and Bennett returned to Copenhagen and stayed at the Hotel Sara-Dan. From Copenhagen, Villabona and Bennett flew to Milan, Italy, and registered at the Hilton International Hotel on December 9,1987. In late March 1988, Villabona returned to Aal-borg, Denmark, and again used the same public telephone. In each of these locations, the telephone calls made by Villabona were monitored by the Danish (or in one case, Italian) authorities. Tapes of these wiretaps were played for the jury and were relied on at least in part to convict Villabona, Bennett, Martinez, Barona, Harris, and McCarver.

Between March and November 1988, Bennett asked Stanley McCarns to transport 502 kilograms of cocaine from Los Angeles to Detroit and to return with millions of dollars. Stanley McCarns then arranged for Willie Childress and his cousin, James McCarns, to transport the cocaine. Childress and James McCarns were stopped en route on November 6, 1988, and a Missouri state trooper seized the cocaine. On November 11, 1988, domestic wiretaps commenced on two cellular telephones used by Villabona. These taps also resulted in the interception of several incriminating conversations.

A 28-count indictment resulted in the arrests of the six appellants. While we have disposed of the majority of the appellants’ claims in an unpublished disposition, see Fed. R.App.P. 36; Ninth Cir.R. 36-1, two issues raised in this appeal require publication. See Ninth Cir.R. 36-2. The first of these issues, of concern to all of the appellants, is whether any or all of the wiretap evidence obtained in Denmark and Italy should have been suppressed. The second issue is whether count 27 charging Villabona and count 28 charging Bennett with running a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848, should be vacated because the jury may have impermissibly found that certain individuals counted as supervisees for purposes of section 848(c)(2)(A).

II

The district court ruled on the motion to suppress the Denmark wiretap evidence as follows:

[T]he Court agrees with the Defense, that other than the Milan Wiretap, that these were wiretaps which were engaged in as a joint venture by the United States and Denmark.... [T]he Court finds that the order issued by the Danish Court was lawful and in accordance with then-law. ... The Court finds that the United States authorities reasonably relied upon the representations of the Danish officials with respect to the wiretaps, and therefore they were acting — in the Court’s opinion— in good faith.

The question of whether the wiretaps were a joint venture requires the district court to “scrutinize the attendant facts.” United States v. Rose, 570 F.2d 1358, 1362 (9th Cir.1978) (Rose), quoting Byars v. United States, 273 U.S. 28, 32, 47 S.Ct. 248, 249, 71 L.Ed. 520 (1927). Therefore, we will not disturb such a finding unless it is clearly erroneous. We review de novo, however, the finding that the wiretaps were conducted in accordance with foreign law, United States v. Peterson, 812 F.2d 486, 490 (9th Cir.1987) (Peterson), as well as the question of whether United States agents reasonably relied in good faith upon the foreign officials’ representations that the wiretaps were legal under foreign law. See United States v. Mendonsa, 989 F.2d 366, 369 (9th Cir.1993) (issue of good faith reliance on domestic search warrant reviewed de novo).

A.

When determining the validity of a foreign wiretap, we start with two general and undisputed propositions. The first is that Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-21, “has no extraterritorial force.” Peterson, 812 F.2d at 492. Our analysis, then, is guided only by the applicable principles of constitu[1091]*1091tional law. The second proposition is that “[n]either our Fourth Amendment nor the judicially created exclusionary rule applies to acts of foreign officials.” United States v. LaChapelle, 869 F.2d 488, 489 (9th Cir.1989), quoting United States v. Maher, 645 F.2d 780, 782 (9th Cir.1981).

Two “very limited exceptions” apply. Id, One exception, clearly inapplicable here, occurs “if the circumstances of the foreign search and seizure are so extreme that they ‘shock the [judicial] conscience,’ [so that] a federal appellate court in the exercise of its supervisory powers can require exclusion of the evidence.” Id. at 490, quoting Rose, 570 F.2d at 1362 (further citations omitted). This type of exclusion is not based on our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, but rather on the recognition that we may employ our supervisory powers when absolutely necessary to preserve the integrity of the criminal justice system. The wiretaps at issue cannot be said to shock the conscience. Even when no authorization for a foreign wiretap was secured in violation of the foreign law itself, we have not excluded the evidence under this rationale, Peterson, 812 F.2d at 491, nor should we. Here, the foreign courts were involved and purported to authorize the wiretaps. The conduct here, therefore, does not come close to requiring the invocation of this exception.

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Bluebook (online)
56 F.3d 1087, 1995 WL 329267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-barona-ca9-1995.