United States v. Decker

311 F. Supp. 1223, 26 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5454, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12077
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedApril 15, 1970
DocketNo. 22992-1
StatusPublished

This text of 311 F. Supp. 1223 (United States v. Decker) 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. Decker, 311 F. Supp. 1223, 26 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5454, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12077 (W.D. Mo. 1970).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO SUPPRESS

JOHN W. OLIVER, District Judge.

I.

This case pends on defendant’s motion to suppress. A full evidentiary hearing was held pursuant to Rule 41(e), Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The factual situation, as distinguished from the inferences to be drawn therefrom, are not in substantial dispute. The parties filed excellent briefs which have been fully considered. In addition, defendant has filed four separate requests for 107 supplemental findings of facts. We shall indicate our view in regard to defendant’s requested findings in the last part of this memorandum opinion.

Defendant’s motion will be denied for the reasons we shall state. We shall make all relevant findings in this memorandum opinion in connection with our discussion of defendant’s legal contentions.

II.

Defendant’s contentions are accurately stated in the introduction to his brief filed in support of his motion:

Defendant’s motion to suppress should be granted for each of the following reasons:

1. The evidence of the government, against the use of which the motion is directed, was illegally obtained in violation of the defendant’s rights under the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution ; and
2. The Government’s evidence was illegally obtained as a result of misrepresentations, legally the equivalent of fraud, on the part of government agents; and
3. The actions of the government agent in obtaining the offending evi[1225]*1225dence violated rules, regulations and procedures of the Treasury Department established and promulgated for the purpose of defining, fixing and limiting the duties and activities of agents of the Internal Revenue Service.

We shall discuss each of the three contentions in the order stated.

III.

In opening his argument in support of his first contention, defendant appropriately states that “the defense concedes that this Court is obliged to follow the dictates of its controlling court as set forth in Cohen v. United States, 405 F.2d 34 (C.A.8, 1968), cert. den. 394 U.S. 943 [89 S.Ct. 1274, 22 L.Ed.2d 478]; and United States v. Brevik, [422 F.2d 449 (8 Cir.)] decided March 11, 1970.” Defendant also concedes that “in those cases the Court of Appeals apparently has held that (in the absence of misrepresentation) a taxpayer has no right to Miranda type warnings under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments between the date his tax return is scheduled for ‘routine’ examination and the date of his indictment for criminal tax fraud.”

The Court of Appeals clearly indicated in Cohen and in Brevik that it agreed with and adopted the rationale of the Second Circuit as illustrated by United States v. Squeri, (2 Cir., 1968) 398 F.2d 785, as opposed to the rationale of the Seventh Circuit as illustrated by United States v. Dickerson, (7 Cir., 1969) 413 F.2d 1111, upon which defendant strongly relies in this case.

Defendant acknowledges that our controlling Court of Appeals has recognized that Fourth Amendment questions may be involved; defendant directs attention to that part of Cohen which states that “agents must not affirmatively mislead a taxpayer.” But defendant argues that application of “the doctrine of Cohen and Brevik apparently means [that] the taxpayer * * * receives less protection than does the bank robber who races out of the door of the bank into the arms of a waiting policeman.”

Defendant also complains that the Court of Appeals improperly relied upon White v. United States, (8 Cir., 1968) 395 F.2d 170, to support its conclusion in Cohen that an internal revenue agent “must not affirmatively mislead a taxpayer.” Defendant argues that the Court of Appeals stated that conclusion in Cohen in reliance upon White in spite of the fact that “nowhere in White does the qualifying word ‘affirmatively’ appear.” In summation, defendant argues that “the logical and direct result of the doctrine of Cohen and Brevik will be to foster and encourage, by giving legal sanction and support to * * * treachery, dishonesty and deceit on the part of government agents * *

In addition to the complaints registered against the Court of Appeals in regard to Cohen and Brevik, defendant’s argument in support of his contention would have this Court, in disregard of those cases, expand the rationale of United States v. Dickerson, supra, far beyond the circumstances there involved and far beyond what the Seventh Circuit said in that case. Indeed, defendant contends that “the constitutional rights of individuals under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, are deserving of continuing protection throughout all phases of an investigation which may result in criminal prosecution.” And defendant, as he must under the factual circumstances of this case, asserts that if the taxpayer ever could have asserted a constitutional claim at any stage of any internal revenue investigation, the “benefits of these protections can be claimed retrospectively.” Specifically, defendant argues that because the defendant may have had the right to refuse to turn over his records to Mr. Gaston, this Court should now “permit the taxpayer to claim his rights retrospectively and that the granting of defendant’s Motion to Suppress would accomplish that result.”

Defendant urges that we adopt defendant’s extension of what the Seventh Circuit actually held in Dickerson and to adopt defendant’s arguments as this [1226]*1226Court's view “as to the meaning of the Constitution as applied to this defendant and the facts of this case, even though such views may be wholly or partially in conflict with the views announced in Cohen and Brevik.”

Under exceptional circumstances we believe that on infrequent occasions it may be appropriate for a lower federal court to indicate that a particular constitutional principle may, in its judgment, be subject to an appropriate reappraisal. The Supreme Court recently noted what both this Court and the Court of Appeals stated in such an exceptional case when it recently decided Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, footnote 4 on page 440 and footnote 5 on page 441, 90 S.Ct. 1189, on pages 1192 and 1193, 25 L.Ed.2d 469.

But this case is not such an exceptional case. Our Court of Appeals has recently and clearly indicated its considered view of the question presented in this case. Indeed, the Eighth Circuit’s acceptance of the Second Circuit’s rationale makes it plain that our controlling court expects that the district courts of this circuit will apply that rationale in the same manner that other courts have done in regard to comparable factual circumstances.

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Related

Ashe v. Swenson
397 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1970)
Robert E. Morgan v. United States
377 F.2d 507 (First Circuit, 1967)
United States v. Enrico Squeri
398 F.2d 785 (Second Circuit, 1968)
Jerry M. Cohen v. United States
405 F.2d 34 (Eighth Circuit, 1969)
United States v. Albert Dickerson
413 F.2d 1111 (Seventh Circuit, 1969)
United States v. Richard v. Caiello
420 F.2d 471 (Second Circuit, 1970)
United States v. Clark Eugene Heffner
420 F.2d 809 (Fourth Circuit, 1970)
United States v. Elton M. Brevik
422 F.2d 449 (Eighth Circuit, 1970)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
311 F. Supp. 1223, 26 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5454, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12077, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-decker-mowd-1970.