United States v. David Chun

This appeal arises from an order to suppress tapes of certain intercepted wire communications which the government is attempting to use in prosecuting appellees for their alleged participation in a gambling enterprise prohibited by 18 U.S.C. § 1955 . It involves a class of defendants whose interests appear to have been almost completely forgotten by the draftsmen of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2520 .

I.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On application of government attorneys, the interception of wire communications from various telephones was authorized by the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii pursuant to the provisions of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2520 . These authorizations extended over a period of some two months until, on December 18, 1972, government surveillance of the telephones was discontinued. In conjunction with the same investigation, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation also executed approximately seventy-eight conventional search warrants. Probable cause for the issuance of these warrants had been satisfied on the…