United States v. D'ALO

486 F. Supp. 945, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10552
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedAugust 7, 1979
DocketCr. 79-17
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 486 F. Supp. 945 (United States v. D'ALO) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. D'ALO, 486 F. Supp. 945, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10552 (D.R.I. 1979).

Opinion

*947 OPINION

PETTINE, Chief Judge.

Defendants are charged with manufacturing counterfeit slugs, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 491(b), and conspiracy to commit the same offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. This matter is before the Court on defendants’ motion to suppress certain evidence seized in connection with their arrests.

In December of 1977 and January of 1978, officials of the Rhode Island State Police and the Warwick Police Department were investigating the robbery of a United Parcel Service (UPS) truck. In the course of their investigation these state and local officials met with agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an FBI informant, Robert Oliva. Oliva told the police that he and three other men, including Edward D’Alo, had conspired in the planning and preparation for the UPS robbery, and also told them that Edward D’Alo was manufacturing slugs and silencers for weapons at the D’Alo Tool Company. However, the FBI asked the police to “back off” on their investigation because Oliva was still at large and providing the FBI with information. The government indicated it feared that the arrest of one of the suspects would jeopardize Oliva’s safety and his ability to continue as an informant.

On the morning of February 2,1978, Captain Ricci of the Warwick Police was contacted by an officer of the Providence Police Department, who told him that one of the suspects in the UPS robbery already had been arrested and was providing valuable information regarding the crime while in custody. The Providence Police were unaware of Oliva’s existence as an informer and unaware that the State and Warwick Police had been informed of his activities.

Later that morning, a meeting was held at State Police headquarters between the State Police, Warwick Police, and the FBI. It was decided that the Warwick Police should obtain an arrest warrant for Edward D’Alo. They stated this was necessary to protect the undercover operation, the existence of which depended on keeping Oliva’s identity as an informer concealed.

The Warwick Police obtained a “District Court Felony Complaint” for Edward D’Alo’s arrest on the charge of conspiracy to commit robbery. They proceeded to D’Alo’s place of business, the D’Alo Tool Company in North Providence, on the afternoon of February 2. Both Warwick and State Police officers participated in 'this mission. Edward D’Alo was arrested in the office area of his building, and while on the premises the police observed evidence of the manufacture of slugs. Mark D’Alo, nephew of Edward, who was observed disassembling a machine on which there was a slug, was also arrested; however, that arrest was without a warrant. Following these arrests, the police obtained a search warrant, which was executed late that afternoon, and seized slugs, materials for making slugs, a handgun, ammunition, and other matter pursuant to the warrant. The items relating to the counterfeiting charges are the subjects of defendants’ motion to suppress. 1

All of the grounds upon which defendants rely in their motion involve one undisputed fact: the failure of the State and local police to obtain a search warrant for counterfeiting materials before their entry into the D’Alo Tool Company. Additionally, they rely on a defective arrest warrant for Edward D’Alo. Defendants contend that the police had prior knowledge of the existence of the challenged evidence before that time, and that their entry was premised not upon an arrest for the UPS robbery but for the real purpose of conducting a warrant-less search for evidence of counterfeiting. Defendants argue that this is violative of the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment.

As a preliminary matter the Court will address defendants’ contention that the ar *948 rest of Edward D’Alo was constitutionally deficient because it was not based on a valid arrest warrant. Defendants contend that the “District Court Felony Complaint,” which the arresting officers served on Edward D’Alo, does not conform to the formal requirements for an arrest warrant set forth in R.I.G.L. 10-10-3 and Rules 3, 4, 6, and 8 of the Rhode Island District Court Rules of Criminal Procedure.

The Court need not decide whether the document which the government has introduced as an “arrest warrant” is actually something less than that and not in keeping with the requirements of Rhode Island law. 2 Defendants gain nothing in their challenge to the formal sufficiency of the arrest warrant because R.I.G.L. 12-7 — 4(a) provides, in part:

A peace officer may without a warrant arrest a person for a felony, whenever: (a) The officer has reasonable ground to believe that a felony has been . committed and that the person to be arrested has committed ... it.

For the purposes of this section, Rhode Island has held that “reasonable ground” has substantially the same meaning as “probable cause.” Palmigiano v. Mullen, 377 A.2d 242 (R.I.1977). Here, there is little doubt that the police had probable cause to arrest Edward D’Alo, because a confessed participant in the UPS robbery had named him as a co-conspirator. Therefore, the police were within their authority under Rhode Island law.

The lawfulness of Edward D’Alo’s arrest — an arrest by state officers for a state offense — is to be determined by state law, Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 37, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963), subject to minimal standards of the federal constitution implicit in the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness requirement. United States v. DiRe, 332 U.S. 581, 68 S.Ct. 222, 92 L.Ed. 210 (1948); Burks v. United States, 287 F.2d 117 (9th Cir. 1961). The Supreme Court has held that, as a matter of federal law, arrest warrants are not essential to legitimize arrests based upon probable cause, Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 113, 95 S.Ct. 854, 43 L.Ed.2d 54 (1975), and, as we have seen, Rhode Island authorizes such arrests by statute where there is probable cause.. Therefore, the Court concludes that the arrest of Edward D’Alo was valid both under Rhode Island and federal law. Mark D’Alo’s arrest is closely related to the validity of the search of the D’Alo premises, to which the Court now turns.

Because a ruling on the present suppression issue is contingent upon the propriety of the police activity at the D’Alo Tool Company on February 2, 1978, the Court will attempt to reconstruct the events of that day in some detail, based on the testimony heard at the suppression hearing. When the police arrived at the D’Alo premises, they found Edward D’Alo in an office area to the immediate left of the entry way. They identified themselves and informed Edward D’Alo that they had a warrant for his arrest from the City of Warwick.

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Related

State v. Scurry
636 A.2d 719 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 1994)
People v. Miranda
17 Cal. App. 4th 917 (California Court of Appeal, 1993)
State v. Brennan
627 A.2d 842 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 1993)

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Bluebook (online)
486 F. Supp. 945, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10552, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-dalo-rid-1979.