LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge:
On June 28, 1974, defendant Robert J. Scios was indicted for unlawful interception of wire communications and related offenses.1 By order of May 20, 1975, the district court suppressed the testimony of a potential witness, Thomas Massa, Jr., on the ground that. Massa’s testimony was the product of an illegal search.2 The govem[958]*958ment appealed that order, and on Aug. 23, 1976, a panel of this court reversed the district court order on the ground that the “taint” attaching to Massa’s testimony by virtue of the illegal search had been “attenuated” sufficiently to permit introduction of the testimony at defendant Scios’s trial.3
We have reheard the case en banc and concluded that the challenged testimony must be excluded as tainted by the illegal search.
I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
On Sept. 29, 1972, telephone linemen came upon electronic devices attached to the telephone lines of a pharmacy in Washington, D. C., known as Your Pharmacy Service. The FBI began an investigation, which led eventually to the defendant Scios, a licensed private investigator. A warrant for his arrest was issued on Feb. 15, 1974. The prosecuting attorney concluded that there was no basis for application for a search warrant, and no search warrant was sought.
FBI agents proceeded to Scios’s residence in New York City and arrested him there. After Scios had been physically taken into custody and a gun had been removed from his desk, one of the agents looked around the room “for nothing in particular.” His attention focused upon a credenza, located three or four feet in back of defendant’s desk. On top of the credenza were about 60 file folders, in wire racks, labeled with various projects Scios had worked on in his capacity as a private investigator. Defendant’s access to the credenza was, according to FBI testimony, blocked by the presence of an FBI agent between defendant and the credenza. The trial court found that the credenza was beyond the area of defendant’s immediate control.4
At this point one of the agents went to the credenza and removed a file folder labeled “Your Pharmacy Service” — the name of the pharmacy upon whose telephone lines the electronic devices had been found. The government contended that the label on this folder was in plain view of the agents. The court found as a fact to the contrary; rather, the agent had “bent over, read through the folders, and fingered them so that their labels could be read.” 5
The folder was found to contain various papers, including a credit card charge slip with Scios’s name on it from a motel in Washington, D. C., and an itemized bill from the same motel, indicating “Mr. Massa” had registered for the room. These items bore the date July 26, 1972, which established a likely temporal link to the period of the wiretapping. Using the motel’s record of telephone calls made from the room, the F.B.I. was able to locate in New York City the potential witness— Thomas Massa, Jr.
A subpoena was issued commanding Massa to appear before a grand jury in the District of Columbia.6 Massa was initially [959]*959reluctant to speak to the prosecutor in Washington, but on the advice of his family he appeared, on May 5,1974, in the prosécutor’s office. Massa was told that preparations were being made to grant him immunity from prosecution for matters to which his grand jury testimony might relate. In his first appearance before the grand jury, before immunity had been granted, Massa refused to testify, asserting his privilege against self-incrimination.
On May 8,1974, the District Judge issued an order directing Massa to testify — conferring appropriate immunity. Massa was again taken before the grand jury and again refused to testify, but then reluctantly acquiesced after Judge Hart’s order was read to him. The indictment of Scios followed.
II. PROCEEDINGS IN THE DISTRICT COURT
In October, 1974, defendant Scios moved the district court to suppress as evidence the file folder and its contents, as well as all evidence derived therefrom. He moved, in addition, to suppress all oral statements made by him at the time of arrest, and any evidence derived therefrom. On Dec. 10, 1974, the court granted these suppression motions. Its order was based on two alternative grounds. It ruled, first, that the affidavit in support of the warrant for Scios’s arrest had failed to establish probable cause to believe that Scios had commit-, ted a crime; consequently, the challenged evidence was suppressed as the product of an illegal arrest. The court then assumed, arguendo, that the arrest had been lawful, and went on to hold that the seizure of the file folder was nevertheless illegal since the folder was not seized in a search incident to arrest as permitted under Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969), nor was it in plain view. Neither defendant’s motions to suppress nor the government’s responses to these motions mentioned the testimony of the witness Massa.
On April 23, 1975, long after the period for appeal of the foregoing order had elapsed, the government moved the court for a determination of whether Massa’s testimony was admissible at trial.7 The government argued that the taint attaching to Massa’s testimony by virtue of the illegal seizure of the folder had been attenuated by intervening events, contending particularly that there was attenuation in Massa’s ultimate “act of volition” in deciding to testify. On May 20, 1974, the district court ruled that the taint had not been sufficiently attenuated to permit introduction of Massa’s testimony.
III. QUESTIONS PRESENTED
The district court’s December 10, 1974, order holding the seizure was illegal was not appealed. On this appeal, from the April 23, 1975, order, suppressing Massa’s testimony, the government does not contest the district court’s ruling that the seizure was a violation of the fourth amendment.8 It argues a claim of attenuation — that the taint attributable to the illegal seizure of the defendant’s file folder has been sufficiently dissipated to permit introduction of the testimony of Thomas Massa, Jr., at trial.
The exclusionary rule was established in Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914). The purpose of the rule is to safeguard fourth amendment rights. United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347-48, 94 S.Ct. 613, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974). The rule bars the introduction at trial not only of evidence seized in violation of the fourth amendment, but also of evidence obtained as an indirect result of the illegal seizure — the fruit of the poisoned tree. Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 40 S.Ct. 182, 64 L.Ed. 319 (1920); Wong Sun v. United [960]*960States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963).
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LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge:
On June 28, 1974, defendant Robert J. Scios was indicted for unlawful interception of wire communications and related offenses.1 By order of May 20, 1975, the district court suppressed the testimony of a potential witness, Thomas Massa, Jr., on the ground that. Massa’s testimony was the product of an illegal search.2 The govem[958]*958ment appealed that order, and on Aug. 23, 1976, a panel of this court reversed the district court order on the ground that the “taint” attaching to Massa’s testimony by virtue of the illegal search had been “attenuated” sufficiently to permit introduction of the testimony at defendant Scios’s trial.3
We have reheard the case en banc and concluded that the challenged testimony must be excluded as tainted by the illegal search.
I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
On Sept. 29, 1972, telephone linemen came upon electronic devices attached to the telephone lines of a pharmacy in Washington, D. C., known as Your Pharmacy Service. The FBI began an investigation, which led eventually to the defendant Scios, a licensed private investigator. A warrant for his arrest was issued on Feb. 15, 1974. The prosecuting attorney concluded that there was no basis for application for a search warrant, and no search warrant was sought.
FBI agents proceeded to Scios’s residence in New York City and arrested him there. After Scios had been physically taken into custody and a gun had been removed from his desk, one of the agents looked around the room “for nothing in particular.” His attention focused upon a credenza, located three or four feet in back of defendant’s desk. On top of the credenza were about 60 file folders, in wire racks, labeled with various projects Scios had worked on in his capacity as a private investigator. Defendant’s access to the credenza was, according to FBI testimony, blocked by the presence of an FBI agent between defendant and the credenza. The trial court found that the credenza was beyond the area of defendant’s immediate control.4
At this point one of the agents went to the credenza and removed a file folder labeled “Your Pharmacy Service” — the name of the pharmacy upon whose telephone lines the electronic devices had been found. The government contended that the label on this folder was in plain view of the agents. The court found as a fact to the contrary; rather, the agent had “bent over, read through the folders, and fingered them so that their labels could be read.” 5
The folder was found to contain various papers, including a credit card charge slip with Scios’s name on it from a motel in Washington, D. C., and an itemized bill from the same motel, indicating “Mr. Massa” had registered for the room. These items bore the date July 26, 1972, which established a likely temporal link to the period of the wiretapping. Using the motel’s record of telephone calls made from the room, the F.B.I. was able to locate in New York City the potential witness— Thomas Massa, Jr.
A subpoena was issued commanding Massa to appear before a grand jury in the District of Columbia.6 Massa was initially [959]*959reluctant to speak to the prosecutor in Washington, but on the advice of his family he appeared, on May 5,1974, in the prosécutor’s office. Massa was told that preparations were being made to grant him immunity from prosecution for matters to which his grand jury testimony might relate. In his first appearance before the grand jury, before immunity had been granted, Massa refused to testify, asserting his privilege against self-incrimination.
On May 8,1974, the District Judge issued an order directing Massa to testify — conferring appropriate immunity. Massa was again taken before the grand jury and again refused to testify, but then reluctantly acquiesced after Judge Hart’s order was read to him. The indictment of Scios followed.
II. PROCEEDINGS IN THE DISTRICT COURT
In October, 1974, defendant Scios moved the district court to suppress as evidence the file folder and its contents, as well as all evidence derived therefrom. He moved, in addition, to suppress all oral statements made by him at the time of arrest, and any evidence derived therefrom. On Dec. 10, 1974, the court granted these suppression motions. Its order was based on two alternative grounds. It ruled, first, that the affidavit in support of the warrant for Scios’s arrest had failed to establish probable cause to believe that Scios had commit-, ted a crime; consequently, the challenged evidence was suppressed as the product of an illegal arrest. The court then assumed, arguendo, that the arrest had been lawful, and went on to hold that the seizure of the file folder was nevertheless illegal since the folder was not seized in a search incident to arrest as permitted under Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969), nor was it in plain view. Neither defendant’s motions to suppress nor the government’s responses to these motions mentioned the testimony of the witness Massa.
On April 23, 1975, long after the period for appeal of the foregoing order had elapsed, the government moved the court for a determination of whether Massa’s testimony was admissible at trial.7 The government argued that the taint attaching to Massa’s testimony by virtue of the illegal seizure of the folder had been attenuated by intervening events, contending particularly that there was attenuation in Massa’s ultimate “act of volition” in deciding to testify. On May 20, 1974, the district court ruled that the taint had not been sufficiently attenuated to permit introduction of Massa’s testimony.
III. QUESTIONS PRESENTED
The district court’s December 10, 1974, order holding the seizure was illegal was not appealed. On this appeal, from the April 23, 1975, order, suppressing Massa’s testimony, the government does not contest the district court’s ruling that the seizure was a violation of the fourth amendment.8 It argues a claim of attenuation — that the taint attributable to the illegal seizure of the defendant’s file folder has been sufficiently dissipated to permit introduction of the testimony of Thomas Massa, Jr., at trial.
The exclusionary rule was established in Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914). The purpose of the rule is to safeguard fourth amendment rights. United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347-48, 94 S.Ct. 613, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974). The rule bars the introduction at trial not only of evidence seized in violation of the fourth amendment, but also of evidence obtained as an indirect result of the illegal seizure — the fruit of the poisoned tree. Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 40 S.Ct. 182, 64 L.Ed. 319 (1920); Wong Sun v. United [960]*960States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). An exception to this “tainted fruit” doctrine has been established for the case where the connection between the illegal seizure and the subsequent discovery of the challenged evidence has “become so attenuated as to dissipate the taint,” Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 341, 60 S.Ct. 266, 268, 84 L.Ed. 307 (1939). It is related to the rule, plainly not available to the government here, that permits the introduction of evidence to which the government was led by means independent of the illegal search or seizure.9
In certain circumstances, the attenuation doctrine has been applied where the witness who has been located as the result of an illegal search or seizure has voluntarily decided to testify. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. at 491, 83 S.Ct. 407. The principle underlying this application of the attenuation doctrine has not been articulated with clarity. It is probably an adaptation, with adjustment, of the general legal conception that sees the link of causation broken when an intervening cause is independent.10
Turning to the case before us, we examine first the claim that the taint of the illegal seizure was attenuated by a voluntary decision to testify; and next, the claim of attenuation of the taint by the complexity of intervening factors.
A. Voluntariness: In Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963), the Court excluded the incriminating statements of defendant Toy, made shortly after his illegal arrest, while handcuffed and surrounded by federal narcotics agents. The Court said it was unreasonable to judge that his response to the police interrogation “was sufficiently an act of free will to purge the primary taint” of an illegal arrest, 371 U.S. at 486, 83 S.Ct. at 416. The statement of Wong Sun, a co-defendant, was, by contrast, deemed admissible.' Wong Sun had also been arrested without probable cause. His statement, however, was not made immediately after arrest; rather, he was released in his own recognizance and returned voluntarily several days later to make the statement. Id. at 491, 83 S.Ct. 407. The Supreme Court found that “the connection between the arrest and the statement had ‘become so attenuated as to dissipate the taint.’ . .” Id. at 491, 83 S.Ct. at 419, quoting Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 341, 60 S.Ct. 266, 84 L.Ed. 307 (1939).
It seems clear from Wong Sun that for an act of free will to operate as a dissipation of . taint, it must occur in circumstances devoid of coercion.
The principle was further developed in Smith and Bowden v. United States, 117 U.S.App.D.C. 1, 324 F.2d 879 (1963), decided shortly after Wong Sun. This court excluded a statement made by a defendant during unnecessarily long post-arrest detention, and tangible evidence taken from him at that time. But it admitted the testimony of an eyewitness to a murder who had been located as a result of a statement made by a defendant. The eyewitness initially provided no incriminating evidence. After considering the matter for a period of time, during which he “kept thinking about the dead man . .,” Record at 629, he decided to testify against defendant.- In support of the distinction thus made, Judge (now Chief Justice) Burger stressed the element of volition and other aspects of human behavior that contribute to its indeterminacy:
[A] witness is not an inanimate object which like contraband narcotics, a pistol or stolen goods, “speak for themselves.” The proffer of a living witness is not to [961]*961be mechanically equated with the proffer of inanimate evidentiary objects illegally seized. The fact that the name of a potential witness is disclosed to police is of no evidentiary significance, per se, since the living witness is an individual human personalty whose attributes of will, perception, memory and volition interact to determine what testimony he will give.2 The uniqueness of this human
117 U.S.App.D.C. at 3-4 & n. 2, 324 F.2d at 881-82 & n. 2.
The concept of “reflection” as the key element of admissibility in Smith and Bow-den was emphasized in Smith and Anderson v. United States, 120 U.S.App.D.C. 160, 344 F.2d 545 (1965).
However, for purposes of this case, we need not pursue the question when or in what circumstances voluntary testimony will be admissible.
In the present case, it is plain that Massa’s giving of testimony — before the grand jury, and presumably at the trial — is purely and simply a product of coercion. Massa’s decision to testify is not a matter of choice, or free will, but made solely to avoid being jailed for contempt. His decision to testify in such circumstances can hardly be what Judge Burger had in mind in Smith and Bowden when he spoke of the “human personality whose attributes of will, perception, memory and volition interact to determine what testimony he will give.” 117 U.S.App.D.C. at 3, 324 F.2d at 881.
B. Claim of attenuation of the taint by intervening factors: The government also argues there are numerous “intervening factors”11 between the illegal seizure of the file folder and Massa’s testimony making the chain from the illegal seizure of the file folder to the testimony of Massa “so complicated, remote, and indirect”12 as to dissipate the connection.
The claim, in substance, is that there was no direct link between the file folder and Massa, because the file document that showed Massa’s name in the record of the motel room paid by defendant did not establish his identity. That only appeared when the police checked the motel’s telephone records.
We must begin with the illegal search. At the arrest for the offense of tapping the line of Your Pharmacy Service, the agent unlawfully riffled through defendant’s file folders and removed his file for Your Pharmacy Service. The agents tracked the Massa lead found in that file. They did not pursue a trail independent of the illegal search (see note 9). The location of Massa was not the product of an improbable, unforeseeable coincidence. It was good police work, but a straightforward exploration of the leads in the Pharmacy file. The fact that the exploration took some time, although a material consideration, does not of itself demonstrate that the exclusionary rule is inapplicable. “The road . may be long, but it is straight.”13
******
[962]*962We add to the opinion that had been written for this case a reference to United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268, 98 S.Ct. 1054, 55 L.Ed.2d 268 (1978), which in our view is not only congruent with but affirmatively supports our reasoning and result.
In Ceccolini, a police officer (Biro), op duty at school crossings, was taking a break in defendant’s flower shop, when he noticed an envelope, with money sticking out, on the cash register behind the counter. He examined the contents of the envelope, found policy slips, and questioned a shop employee (Ms. Hennessey) who told him that the envelope belonged to defendant, and that he had instructed her to give it to someone. Some four months later, the FBI interviewed her at her home in the presence of her family, and said the government would appreciate any information regarding defendant’s activities that she had acquired in the shop. She told the FBI agent she was studying police science in college and would be willing to help, and she then related the events that had occurred when the police officer was at the shop- A month later she testified to the same effect before the grand jury, thus contradicting the grand jury testimony given by defendant, who was indicted for perjury.
The Supreme Court held that the testimony of employee Hennessey was admissible at defendant’s trial.
Justice Rehnqui'st, for the Court, found that the taint of the illegal search by the officer had been sufficiently attenuated to permit introduction of the testimony. The Court rejected the notion that the exclusionary rule was subject to a per se exception that rendered all live witness testimony admissible, regardless of whether obtained as a consequence of illegality.14 Instead, the particular features of a case must be examined to balance the benefits ■ of the exclusionary rule, with its deterrent purpose, against the costs.
In his summarizing paragraph Justice Rehnquist states:
Viewing this case in the light of the principles just discussed, we hold that the Court of Appeals erred in holding that the degree of attenuation was not sufficient to dissipate the connection between the illegality and the testimony. The evidence indicates overwhelmingly that the testimony given by the witness was an act of her own free will in no way coerced or even induced by official authority as a result of Biro’s discovery of the policy slips. Nor were the slips themselves used [963]*963in questioning Hennessey. Substantial periods of time elapsed between the time of the illegal search and the initial contact with the witness, on the one hand, and between the latter and the testimony at trial on the other. While the particular knowledge to which Hennessey testified at trial can be logically traced back to Biro’s discovery of the policy slips, both the identity of Hennessey and her relationship with the respondent was well known to those investigating the case. There is, in addition, not the slightest evidence to suggest that Biro entered the shop or picked up the envelope with the intent of finding tangible evidence bearing on an illicit gambling operation, much less any suggestion that he entered the shop and searched with the intent of finding a willing and knowledgeable witness to testify against respondent. Application of the exclusionary rule in' this situation could not have the slightest deterrent effect on the behavior of an officer such as Biro. The cost of permanently silencing Hennessey is too great for an even-handed system of law enforcement to bear in order to secure such a speculative and very likely negligible deterrent effect.
435 U.S. at 279, 98 S,Ct. at 1062.
The case at bar stands in marked contrast to Ceccolini on these critical factors: (1) In Ceccolini, Hennessey’s testimony “was an act of her own free will in no way coerced or even induced by official authority.” In contrast, Massa initially refused to consult with the authorities, and agreed to confer and to testify only in response to pressure by the prosecutor, including the threat of a contempt citation.
(2) Massa’s existence as a potential witness was entirely unknown to the authorities before they searched Scios’s files.
(3) The search of Scios’s files was to gain evidence, the FBI having come to the scene to arrest Scios for illegal wiretapping.
Excluding the fruit of that illegal search cannot be dismissed as of “negligible deterrent effect.”
* * * * # *
We conclude, in sum, that the taint of the illegal search and seizure of the folder15 was not dissipated by the fact that [964]*964police investigation of the leads in the folder was required in order to locate Massa, or that Massa decided to testify under the constraint of a court order. We therefore affirm the order of the district court suppressing his testimony.
So ordered.