United States v. Iannelli

339 F. Supp. 171, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15077
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 16, 1972
DocketCrim. 71-062
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 339 F. Supp. 171 (United States v. Iannelli) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Iannelli, 339 F. Supp. 171, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15077 (W.D. Pa. 1972).

Opinion

OPINION

WEIS, District Judge.

This case presents an illustration of the many complexities involved in the legislation enacted by Congress in recent years in efforts to combat organized crime.

The defendants have been indicted for conspiracy and violations of various gambling statutes of the United States. Much of the evidence which the Government intends to produce consists of facts uncovered by the use of a court authorized wiretap on telephones at the Iannelli residence located in one of the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

An evidentiary hearing has been held and a transcript of the telephone conversations overheard, as well as a copy of the tape recording, have been furnished to defense counsel.

The defendants have filed a plethora of pretrial motions — they allege:

1. The statute authorizing wiretapping, 18 U.S.C. § 2510 et seq., is unconstitutional;

2. The request for the court order for intercepting telephone communications was not properly authorized ;

3. There were illegal disclosures of the contents of intercepted telephone conversations;

4. The FBI utilized an unauthorized wiretap;

5. An order of utilization under 18 U.S.C. § 2517 was secured by misrepresentation ;

6. The application for the interception order was tainted by a prior illegal tap;

7. That 18 U.S.C. § 1955, a gambling statute, is unconstitutional;

8. That searches of premises owned by various defendants were based upon inadequate cause;

9. That the conspiracy count represents duplication of the offenses outlawed by 18 U.S.C. § 1955 and, hence, should be dismissed;

10. That bills of particulars and discovery should be ordered.

1.

The constitutionality of the wiretapping statute has already been passed upon by this court and nothing further need be said on that subject at this time. See, United States v. LaGorga, 336 F. Supp. 190 (W.D.Pa.1971). The same considerations, however, with respect to irrelevant calls prevail in this case as in the LaGorga matter and the same provisions will apply to prevent further dissemination of the irrelevant material contained in the phone conversations, that is, an order impounding the nonincriminatory interceptions to preserve privacy.

Defendants Albert Cammarata, Frances Cammarata, Louise Faiella, Anthony Cancilla and Steve Bruno contend that the failure to serve an inventory upon them requires suppression of the evidence. However, we note that the statute 1 does not require that a notice be served upon each person whose calls have been intercepted. It is sufficient if an inventory is served upon the individual named in the application and such *174 other persons as the judge may determine in his discretion. Cf. ABA Standards on Electronic Surveillance, § 5.15.

The purpose of this particular provision is to prevent the Government from carrying on a continuing surveillance without alerting those who would be the subject of the interceptions. In all, inventories were sent to some twenty-one persons, including eight of the named defendants. This is adequate coverage to effect the result intended by the Act. In any event it seems likely that Bruno and the others became aware of the intercept in this case when their acquaintances were served.

2.

Defendants assert that the Government failed to secure the authorization required by 18 U.S.C. § 2516(1) in that the letter attached to the application purportedly signed by Will Wilson, an Assistant Attorney General, was in fact never read, signed, dictated or approved by him. However, the prosecution contends that a memorandum issued by the Attorney General, and initialed by him, constitutes sufficient authorization within the terms of the statute. A similar situation prevailed in the LaGorga case where a like memorandum was held sufficient. We hold to the same effect in this case. 2

This case is different from United States v. Cihal, 336 F.Supp. 261 (W.D. Pa.1972), where neither the Attorney General nor an Assistant Attorney General ever authorized the wiretap. In the Cihal case the only person who authorized the interception was the Executive Assistant to the Attorney General, a person not empowered by the terms of the Act to direct the use of wiretapping and consequently the court ordered suppression.

In United States v. Aquino, 338 F. Supp. 1080 (E.D.Mich.1972), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan sustained an order for an original wiretap but ordered suppression of the extension. The original interception was found to be within the law when a memorandum initialed by the Attorney General formed part of the request for application. The extension, however, did not contain such authorization and it appeared that again only the Executive Assistant to the Attorney General had passed on the application.

Similarly, in United States v. Robinson, (5th Cir. 1/12/72), 40 L.W. 2454, suppression was ordered when there was evidence that the Executive Assistant to the Attorney General alone had authorized the application.

This is not a Cihal or Robinson case; this is a situation similar to LaGorga and the original tap in Aquino. We therefore find adequate compliance with 18 U.S.C. § 2516(1).

3.

Defendants claim, further, that there was unauthorized disclosure of the material received in the tap, particularly to the Internal Revenue Service and to the news media.

In April or May of 1971, Special Agent Edward Zelik of the Intelligence Division of the Internal Revenue Service was permitted to listen to the tape recordings of the intercepts. He compiled estimates of wagers received by the lannellis and turned this information over to Revenue Agent Stanley Giarrussi assigned to the Excise Tax Group.

Acting on the basis of the data given to Giarrussi, IRS made wagering tax assessments against the lannellis and later liened all their property.

It appears that similar disclosures were made to the IRS with respect to some of the other defendants.

*175 No court order authorized by 18 U.S.C. § 2517(5)

Related

United States v. Williams
565 F. Supp. 353 (N.D. Illinois, 1983)
State v. Burnett
558 P.2d 1087 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1976)
United States v. Vento
533 F.2d 838 (Third Circuit, 1976)
United States v. Robert Elia Iannelli, A/K/A Bobby I
528 F.2d 1290 (Third Circuit, 1976)
United States v. Scasino
513 F.2d 47 (Fifth Circuit, 1975)
Iannelli v. United States
420 U.S. 770 (Supreme Court, 1975)
United States v. Chun
386 F. Supp. 91 (D. Hawaii, 1974)
United States v. Lanese
385 F. Supp. 525 (N.D. Ohio, 1974)
Spease v. State
319 A.2d 560 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 1974)
United States v. Giordano
416 U.S. 505 (Supreme Court, 1974)
People v. Hueston
42 A.D.2d 860 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1973)
United States v. Bowdach
366 F. Supp. 1368 (S.D. Florida, 1973)
People v. Palozzi
74 Misc. 2d 774 (New York County Courts, 1973)
Owens v. State
282 So. 2d 402 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1973)
Iannelli, Appeal Of
480 F.2d 918 (Third Circuit, 1973)
United States v. Iannelli
480 F.2d 919 (Third Circuit, 1973)
United States v. Denisio
360 F. Supp. 715 (D. Maryland, 1973)
United States v. John Jacob Bobo
477 F.2d 974 (Fourth Circuit, 1973)
In Re Dellinger
357 F. Supp. 949 (N.D. Illinois, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
339 F. Supp. 171, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15077, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-iannelli-pawd-1972.