United States v. Canon

404 F. Supp. 841, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15566
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedOctober 28, 1975
DocketCR 75-H-423-S
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 404 F. Supp. 841 (United States v. Canon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Canon, 404 F. Supp. 841, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15566 (N.D. Ala. 1975).

Opinion

ORDER

HANCOCK, District Judge.

On September 4, 1975, a duly constituted grand jury in this district returned an indictment against 22 separate individuals, all of whom were charged therein with violations of 18 U. S.C. § 371 and 18 U.S.C. § 1955, and 8 of whom were additionally charged therein with violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a)(3). The indictment was docketed in this court as styled above.

Apparently a significant portion of the evidence collected for presentation to the grand jury and/or for use in connection with a trial was obtained from, directly or indirectly, the interception of wire communications under the procedure authorized by 18 U.S.C. § 2516, et seq. The interceptions were made under orders of this court entered by Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr., on November 6, 1974, and November 22, 1974. Each of those orders was the product of an ex parte proceeding before Judge Pointer on the particular day that the order was executed.

All defendants named in the indictment other than defendant Sam Bernard Barr have filed written motions challenging the two proceedings authorizing the interceptions and seeking to suppress all intercepted communications and any evidence traced in any manner therefrom. Counsel- for defendant Barr filed no such motion in reliance upon a representation by United States Magistrate Edwin L. Nelson that the motions to suppress filed on behalf of the other defendants would be considered as raising the same objections on behalf of defendant Barr and the court will so consider them without the necessity of a formal motion to suppress being filed.

Pursuant to the procedure established in an order entered on September 18, 1975, the motions to suppress came on *843 for hearing before Honorable Edwin L. Nelson, United States Magistrate, on October 6, 1975. The hearing was concluded during the afternoon of October 9, 1975, and the court reporter filed herein on October 14, 1975, the entire transcript of such four-day hearing, consisting of over 1,000 pages, which transcript was delivered to Judge Nelson. On the same date a separate copy of the transcript was delivered to the undersigned for consideration and use prior to the completion by the United States Magistrate of his assigned task under the September 18, 1975 order, as amended October 15, 1975.

Under the October 15, 1975 amendment to the‘‘September 18, 1975 order, the United States Magistrate was requested to file proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law by October 20, 1975. This court, however, prior to its review of the proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law so delivered to it, read the entire transcript of the record developed before the Magistrate on October 6, 7, 8 and 9 and reviewed the documents pertaining to the November 6, 1974, and November 22, 1974 proceedings before Judge Pointer which have been under seal and continuously in the custody of Judge Pointer, the Clerk of this court or the undersigned, copies of such documents being incorporated herein as Exhibit A (November 6, 1974) and as Exhibit B (November 22, 1974).

Based upon the court’s own independent review as aforesaid, the court has reached the conclusions hereinafter expressed. Moreover, following a careful review of the thorough and excellent report of the Magistrate on October 20, 1975, of his proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, the court is of the opinion that its conclusions thus reached are in no way contrary to the conclusions reached by the Magistrate. Indeed, the proposed findings and conclusions of the Magistrate support and underscore, those of the court reached herein.

The court is of the opinion and hereby finds (a) that the communications intercepted on November 6, 1974, through November 19, 1974, both dates inclusive, pursuant'to the order entered by Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr. on November 6, 1974, and the communications intercepted on November 23, 1974, through November 30, 1974, both dates inclusive, pursuant to the order entered by Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr. on November 22, 1974, were lawfully intercepted; (b) that the order of authorization of Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr. entered on November 6, 1974, and the order of authorization of Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr. entered on November 22, 1974, and the respective verified applications and affidavits and exhibits underlying each such order are lawful and sufficient on their face; and, (c) that the interceptions described in (a) above were made in conformity with the respective orders of authorization under which they were made, namely, the November 6, 1974, and the November 22, 1974 orders. The court is of the opinion and hereby further finds that the separate utilization of pen registers in conjunction with the above described interceptions were lawfully authorized by separate orders entered on November 6, 1974, and on November 22, 1974, by Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr., after a showing of sufficient probable cause. See United States v. Doolittle, 507 F.2d 1368, aff’d en banc 518 F.2d 500 (5th Cir. 1975).

The court is of the further opinion and hereby finds (a) that the verified application of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama presented to Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr. on November 6, 1974, together with the supporting documents referred to therein, including specifically the detailed affidavit of Special Agent Robert M. Barrett dated November 6, 1974, as well as the verified application of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama presented to Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr., on November 22, 1974, together with the supporting docu *844 ments referred to therein, including specifically the detailed affidavit of Special Agent William K. Teigen, dated November 22, 1974, amply support the findings of Judge Pointer in his November 6, 1974, and November 22, 1974 orders, including the two separate pen register authorizations entered on the same dates, and (b) that throughout the entire 1,062 pages of transcript of the hearing on the motions to suppress no significant evidence was presented from which this court could conclude that any material statements contained in either of the verified applications or supporting documents or underlying affidavits are erroneous or false or that any material information then known to be true and correct which could have in any manner affected Judge Pointer’s findings was omitted or withheld from the applications, supporting documents or affidavits.

The court specifically finds that the underlying documents presented to Judge Pointer support his findings of probable cause in subparagraph (a) of each of the two orders, namely, the November 6, 1974 order and the November 22, 1974 order.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
404 F. Supp. 841, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15566, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-canon-alnd-1975.