United States v. Guarino

610 F. Supp. 371, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21051
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedDecember 21, 1984
DocketCr. 81-127 B, 82-18 B
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 610 F. Supp. 371 (United States v. Guarino) 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. Guarino, 610 F. Supp. 371, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21051 (D.R.I. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

FRANCIS J. BOYLE, Chief Judge.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Defendant has moved to suppress as evidence forty-five cartons of documents seized on the premises of Imperial Distributors on February 28, 1978. Defendant was indicted on December 8, 1981 and March 4, 1982, for various income tax offenses. The two indictments had been consolidated for purposes of a single trial. 1 The government and the Defendant requested that this action be stayed pending the outcome of litigation involving the Defendant before the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the action entitled United States v. Guarino, et al., 729 F.2d 864 (1st Cir.1984). (“Guarino-I’) This case before the Circuit Court involved seven consolidated appeals from the conviction of the Defendant and others for transporting obscene materials in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and 18 U.S.C. § 1465.

On August 4, 1983, a panel of three judges of the First Circuit affirmed the convictions for transporting obscene materials, with one dissent. The First Circuit granted a hearing en banc and vacated its opinion. On February 28, 1984, the en banc panel of five judges reversed the Defendant’s conviction with three judges voting reversal and two affirmance and remanded the case to the District Court with directions to dismiss the indictment. The Circuit Court found evidence, claimed to be obscene publications, to have been illegally obtained pursuant to a warrant that was an invalid general warrant and which was issued without probable cause. Guarino, supra at 870-71. The Solicitor General did not seek a writ of certiorari and on May 15, 1984, the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued its mandate returning that action to the District Court.

Defendant’s Motion to Suppress, in this action, seeks to exclude from evidence business records obtained in Rhode Island on the same date as the search and seizure that was at issue in the District of Massachusetts.

FACTS

On the morning of February 28, 1978, Lawrence Gilligan, Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), presented a detailed affidavit to the United States Magistrate in Boston in support of a search warrant for obscene materials allegedly in a panel truck and then being delivered from Imperial Distributors, Inc. (“Imperial”), Defendant’s warehouse in Providence, Rhode Island to stores in Boston’s Combat Zone. The Gilligan affidavit was accompanied by three magazines which F.B.I. agents had purchased from an “adult book store” in Boston and had traced to a delivery from Defendant’s truck. The Magistrate made a finding that the three magazines were obscene. Based on the affidavit and attached magazines, the Magistrate issued an order commanding the F.B.I. to search the Imperial truck “in order to determine whether or not there exists therein obscene materials of the same tenor as [the three obscene magazines].” *374 A search warrant was also issued directing a search of the truck for . a quantity of obscene materials including books, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, films and prints.” The order and the warrant did not refer to one another.

Upon receiving the warrant at 11:05 a.m., Agent Gilligan telephoned other agents who proceeded to the Combat Zone. The agents arrested the driver of the truck and took the truck to the F.B.I. garage. Sometime before 11:45 a.m., Agent Gilligan arrived at the garage and delivered the warrant to the driver. Gilligan and the other agents then searched the truck and segregated out materials which they found to fit the description of unlawfully obscene material contained in the order. The return of the search warrant states that no property was “taken at this time.” That afternoon, at about 5:30 p.m., at the request of the agents, the Boston Magistrate came to the F.B.I. garage, examined the segregated material, and read a second affidavit drawn up by Gilligan. The Magistrate then authorized the seizure of five films and eight additional magazines as obscene.

After the original seizure of the truck of Imperial Distributors in Boston, but before the Boston Magistrate had an opportunity to view the contents of the truck, at about 2:30 p.m. the Rhode Island aspect of this matter began. Special Agent Kavanagh of the F.B.I. made an application to the United States Magistrate in Rhode Island for a search warrant of the premises of Imperial Distributors located in Providence. The warrant was issued at 3:17 p.m. and the agents served the search warrant at the premises of Imperial Distributors, Inc. at 208 Laurel Hill Avenue, Providence, Rhode Island.

The Rhode Island warrant directed the seizure of all business records of Imperial Distributors, Inc. “relating to the interstate production, manufacture, distribution, purchase and dissemination of obscene materials, dating from April 29, 1975 to the present, including but not limited to” books of the corporation and other corporate records, and including records showing ownership of the business and identification of employees “and furthermore, there is being concealed a quantity of obscene materials, including” eleven named magazines and five named films all as described in the affidavit of Edward Kavanagh, which was incorporated in the warrant by reference.

The affidavit of Special Agent Kavanagh made reference to the affidavit of Special Agent Gilligan, filed in support of the initial morning seizure of the Imperial Distributors’ truck in Boston. Agent Kavanagh’s affidavit stated that “Special Agent Gilligan, Boston Field Office, has advised me that the truck with Rhode Island Commercial Plate 91826 was searched pursuant to a warrant on this date while in Boston, Massachusetts.” The Kavanagh affidavit further stated that according to Agent Gilligan “in the truck were” eight listed magazines and three listed films and included a brief statement with respect to the subject matters of each magazine and film presumably supplied by Agent Gilligan. This brief description leaves no doubt that the materials were sexually explicit.

The Kavanagh affidavit also stated that he or another agent had followed the truck which had been seized in Boston from the Imperial Distributors loading dock in Providence where it had received cartons. This affidavit, like the affidavit in the Boston search warrant, asserted as grounds for the search that the items to be seized were evidence of the interstate transportation of obscene materials for sale and distribution in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1465.

Several aspects of this situation require further characterization. The Government seeks to use business records in this indictment for income tax violations which records were obtained in an effort to seize evidence of transportation of obscene materials in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1465.

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Bluebook (online)
610 F. Supp. 371, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21051, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-guarino-rid-1984.