United States v. Civella

527 F. Supp. 70, 7 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1689, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15479
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedJuly 15, 1981
DocketNo. 80-00023-CR-W-5
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 527 F. Supp. 70 (United States v. Civella) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Civella, 527 F. Supp. 70, 7 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1689, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15479 (W.D. Mo. 1981).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

SCOTT 0. WRIGHT, District Judge.

Pending before this Court are applications filed by members of the news media requesting that the Court make available for public inspection and copying certain documents and materials presently in the custody of the Clerk of this Court. The materials sought consist of various applications, affidavits, exhibits, attachments and progress reports filed in connection with a number of court orders authorizing electronic surveillance in the District of Kansas. These materials were introduced in evidence during the course of a bond revocation hearing held before this Court on June 13, 1981. Claiming a common law right to inspect and copy judicial records, the news media applicants request that the Court enter an order granting them access to the documents and making them available for public scrutiny. The applications are opposed, however, by Roy Lee Williams and Allen Dorfman, two individuals currently under indictment in tbe United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Williams and Dorfman (hereafter also referred to as “the objectors”) raise numerous contentions concerning the appropriateness of authorizing public disclosure of these materials and .they maintain that they are entitled to move to suppress the materials before the Court may release the documents to the media or public. The [72]*72contentions of the objectors, as well as their standing to litigate these issues in this Court, will be discussed separately below. But first, the Court will discuss at some length the pertinent events preceding and surrounding the June 13th bond revocation proceeding.

On July 18, 1980, defendants Nicholas Civella, Peter Tamburello and John Tortora were found guilty by a federal jury of (1) conspiring to bribe a public official and (2) unlawful use of the communications facilities of interstate commerce in furtherance of said conspiracy.1 Following their convictions, the government moved to revoke defendants’ bonds pending appeal. This motion was denied and, subject to certain restrictions and conditions, the Court authorized defendants’ release on bond during the pendency of their appeals. Subsequently, on April 20, 1981, the government again moved to revoke the bond of defendants Civella and Tamburello. As grounds for this motion, the government alleged that both defendants had repeatedly and knowingly associated with convicted felons in violation of one of the conditions of their release. Further, the government alleged that defendant Civella’s bond should also be revoked on the ground that there was a substantial risk that he might flee. In support of this contention, the government revealed that on February 4, 1980, while Civella was incarcerated in the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas on a prior conviction, the government intercepted a conversation between Civella and George Chiavola wherein they discussed the possibility of procuring false identification and travel documents for Civella’s use in the event he was confronted with a lengthy prison sentence in connection with other crimes. Court authorization for the interception of this oral communication had been sought from and granted by U. S. District Judge Earl E. O’Connor of the District of Kansas in Mise. No. 80-WT-l.

Shortly after the government moved to revoke Civella’s bond, his attorneys filed a motion requesting that they be given an opportunity to engage in discovery before responding to the government’s motion. Among other things, counsel for Civella requested that they be furnished with all tape recordings, applications, affidavits, progress reports and monitoring logs associated with Mise. No. 80-WT-l. The government responded that it would voluntarily permit Civella’s attorneys to inspect and copy the application, affidavit, order and all progress reports filed under Mise. No. 80-WT-l and that Civella would also be given access to both the tape recording containing the February 4, 1980 intercepted conversation and the relevant monitoring log for that date. In addition, the government indicated that there were other electronic surveillance applications, affidavits and orders maintained under seal in the custody of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas which were associated with Mise. No. 80-WT-l. These documents were filed in connection with Mise. Nos. 79-WT-7, 79-WT-6, 79-WT-5, 79-WT-4 and 79-WT-2. Moreover, also maintained under seal and in the custody of the District Court of Kansas were affidavits filed in connection with Mise. Nos. WT — 79-3-2, WT-79-4-3 and WT-79-4-3A. The government stated that these documents had been attached as exhibits to the applications for electronic surveillance in Mise. Nos. 79-WT-7, 79-WT-6, 79-WT-5, 79-WT-4 and 79-WT-2 and, in view of defendant Civella’s request for discovery, the government indicated that it would not oppose unsealing all the above-referenced documents and making them available for inspection and copying by counsel for defendant Civella.

Following the government’s disclosure of the foregoing information, the Court met informally with counsel for the parties to discuss the means by which this material would be made available to defendant Civella. Counsel for the government stated they had no objection to making these documents available to defense counsel for their use in the pending bond revocation proceed[73]*73ing and the government’s attorneys agreed to take appropriate action to have certified copies of these documents transferred from the District of Kansas to this Court so that the Court might authorize release of the materials to defendant Civella and his attorneys. Thereafter, upon motion by the government, Judge O’Connor entered an order on May 20,1981, directing that all applications, affidavits, orders and allied documents filed under seal in Mise. Nos. 79-WT-2, 79-WT-4, 79-WT-5, 79-WT-6, 79-WT-7 and 80-WT-l “be unsealed and a certified, exemplified copy of these documents be transferred and deposited, in camera, in the custody of [the] United States District Court [for the] Western District of Missouri ... for their further use as deemed appropriate by the Honorable Scott 0. Wright, United States District Judge, Western District of Missouri ...” The next day, May 21, 1981, after this Court received the above-referenced documents and directed that they be placed in the custody of the Clerk of this Court, the Court entered an order directing the Clerk to make these documents available for examination and/or duplication by defendant Civella and his attorneys of record. The Court’s order further stated that disclosure of these materials was authorized only to Civella and his named attorneys for their use in the bond revocation proceeding and they were specifically forbidden from disseminating or disclosing any of the documents or the contents thereof without express court approval.

Soon after this last order the news media applicants entered the picture. On May 28, 1981, the Kansas City Star Co. (hereafter “the Star”), publisher of the two major daily newspapers in Kansas City, filed an application requesting access to all the documents made available to Nicholas Civella and his attorneys pursuant to the Court’s order of May 21, 1981. The Star made quite clear its reasons for seeking these materials. In describing the wiretap materials which the government agreed to make available to defendant Civella, the government indicated that the affidavits associated with Mise. Nos.

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Related

United States v. DeLuna
616 F. Supp. 534 (W.D. Missouri, 1985)
In re Kansas City Star
666 F.2d 1168 (Eighth Circuit, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
527 F. Supp. 70, 7 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1689, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15479, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-civella-mowd-1981.