United States v. Joan Anne Kerrigan, United States of America v. Alvin Gerson Levitt, United States of America v. Barry Berk

Appellants Kerrigan, Levitt and Berk appeal from their convictions in the Central District of California for conducting an illegal gambling business in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1955 . The case was submitted to the court upon a stipulation of facts. We affirm the judgments below.

Appellants raise seven issues on appeal, of which only one has merit. 18 U.S.C. § 2518 (1)(c) requires a wiretap applicant to include “a full and complete statement as to whether or not other investigative procedures have been tried and failed or why they reasonably appear to be unlikely to succeed if tried * * *.” 18 U.S.C. § 2518 (3)(c) further requires the court to find that “normal investigative procedures have been tried and have failed or reasonably appear to be unlikely to succeed if tried * * Appellants contend that the government showing was deficient on this point.

An affidavit by Special Agent Larry Montague was filed in support of the wiretap application. It summarized the evidence produced by the following investigative techniques: physical surveillance of the suspects, inspection of phone company records and police records, a previous wiretap, and the use of informants. Special…