United States v. Shipp

578 F. Supp. 980, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20781
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 4, 1984
Docket83 Crim. 0574
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 578 F. Supp. 980 (United States v. Shipp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Shipp, 578 F. Supp. 980, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20781 (S.D.N.Y. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

EDWARD WEINFELD, District Judge.

These are a series of motions by various defendants named in a single count indictment filed September 15, 1983, charging them and others with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (1982). The charge centers principally about the defendant Ella Shipp and her alleged large scale illegal drug distribution activities in Cleveland, Ohio and New York City, in concert with other defendants during the period from on or about January 1982 through mid-September 1983.

On September 7, 1983, shortly before the return of the indictment, a complaint was filed accompanied by an extensive affidavit of Special Agent Michael E. Mott of the New York FBI office submitted for the limited purpose of establishing probable cause for the issuance of warrants to search described premises and warrants to arrest named defendants. The affidavit recites details of the activities of named defendants based in part upon information derived from previously authorized wiretap orders. The affidavit is virtually a bill of particulars of each defendant’s purported conduct during the course of the alleged conspiracy. In substance, it charges that in New York City Ella Shipp was assisted by her husband, defendant McAvoy Joseph Shipp (“Mac Shipp”), who introduced her to a heroin source in September, 1981, and thereafter distributed narcotics, by her son, defendant Marty Frierson (“Frierson”), who distributed and stored narcotics and collected the proceeds from drug sales, by defendants Wilfred C. Burch, Sr. (“Burch”), Viola Reid (“Reid”), Gloria Cannon (“Cannon”), and Paul Beranbaum (“Beranbaum”), who distributed narcotics obtained in New York, and by defendant Vivian Elaine Rodriguez (“Rodriguez”), who was one of Ella Shipp’s principal suppliers of cocaine.

The complaint further alleges that, in Cleveland, Ella Shipp’s chief aide was one “Tippy,” now known to be Ella Shipp’s sister, defendant Margaret Wilkinson (“Wilkinson”), and that defendants Charles Byers (“Byers”), Walter Lee Hill (“Hill”), Fred Stitmon (“Stitmon”), and Leola More-land (“Moreland”) assisted in transporting drugs from New York to Cleveland and in their later distribution.

Defendants Mac Shipp, Ella Shipp, Stitmon, Burch and Moreland move to suppress items of evidence obtained as a result of the telephone surveillance orders, and search and arrest warrants allegedly issued in violation of the United States Constitution and federal statutes. A number of defendants also move to dismiss the indictment and for severance on grounds of misjoinder and prejudicial spillover; also they seek extensive pretrial discovery of materi *984 al claimed to be necessary to defend against the charge. 1

I

MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE OBTAINED PURSUANT TO COURT-ORDERED WIRETAPS

On October 20, 1982, Judge David N. Edelstein of this Court authorized the wiretap of Ella Shipp’s telephone at her New York City apartment. Pursuant to this order, which was based upon detailed information sworn to by FBI Agent Mott, the government recorded various telephone conversations which it contends indicate ongoing conspiratorial conduct in the distribution of narcotics in the New York and Cleveland areas. The wiretap was terminated on November 19, 1982. On December 6, 1982, Judge Robert L. Carter granted an extension of the prior wiretap order and subsequent monitoring yielded alleged additional incriminating conversations involving Shipp or one or more of the other defendants.

A. PROBABLE CAUSE

Defendant Moreland, joined by other defendants, seeks to suppress all conversations that were intercepted and any evidence derived therefrom upon the ground that there was no probable cause for the issuance of either wiretap order as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2518(3). 2 It is urged that the information relied upon to establish probable cause was stale, that Ella Shipp’s use of the telephone to make drug sales was not sufficiently described to justify a belief that information concerning the specified offenses would be obtained by a wiretap, and that pen registers 3 showing links between the Shipp telephone and those of individuals associated with large scale narcotics operations were inconclusive. Defendant Stitmon challenges the probable cause finding on the basis that there was no probable cause to believe that he was involved with Ella Shipp’s organization; Stitmon also asserts that the affidavit supporting the application for a wiretap order contained material, false information, and that, if the order is not invalid outright, he is at least entitled to an evidentiary hearing. Moreland also attacks the probable cause findings underpinning the order extending the wiretap.

Under the federal wiretap statute, the provisions of which are contained in Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Acts of 1968, as amended, 4 before a wiretap order may issue, a judicial officer of competent jurisdiction must find, on the basis of the application, that:

... there is probable cause for belief that an individual is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a par *985 ticular offense enumerated in [18 U.S.C. § 2516 (1982) ];
... there is probable cause for belief that particular communications concerning that offense will be obtained through such interception [sought in the application];
[and] there is probable cause for belief that the facilities from which, or the place where, the wire or oral communications are to be intercepted are being used, or are about to be used, in connection with the commission of such offense, or are leased to, listed in the name of, or commonly used by such person. 5

In determining probable cause under this statute the same standard is applied as in determining whether probable cause exists to issue search or arrest warrants. 6 The standard in reviewing a previous determination of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant by a judicial officer is “only a probability, and not a prima facie showing of criminal activity.” 7

Moreland’s first argument, that the information relied upon was stale, is refuted by the facts and numerous decisions addressing similar arguments in situations involving ongoing criminal activity. Specifically, Moreland asserts that between September 20, 1982 and the issuance of the wiretap order on October 20, 1982, the information submitted to Judge Edelstein “failed to provide a factual predicate” for a finding of probable cause.

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Bluebook (online)
578 F. Supp. 980, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20781, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-shipp-nysd-1984.