United States v. Clara Bell Hall

Clara Bell Hall appeals from a conviction for possession of heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 844 (a). Her appeal presents the question of the admissibility in federal court of evidence seized pursuant to an arrest by California officers when that arrest was based on the state agents’ use of information gathered by wiretaps authorized under federal law but illegal under California law. We affirm, holding such evidence to be admissible.

*1231 Backround

On February 6, 1973, California state officers approached an automobile driven by James Kirkpatrick Cooper, in which Hall was a passenger, after the car had stopped at a service station near Fresno. After asking the occupants to get out, one officer noticed a strong acetic acid smell coming from Hall’s purse. Based on his seven years as a narcotics agent, he identified this smell with heroin. A subsequent search of the purse revealed that it contained narcotics paraphernalia and approximately 51 grams of heroin, which was seized and later admitted into evidence at Hall’s trial. No warrant had been issued for the stop or the search.

The state officers approached Cooper’s car because they had been informed earlier that day by…

(dissenting), with whom

I am obliged to dissent.

The majority misapprehends and oversimplifies appellant’s argument. Accordingly, it endorses a novel variation on the sort of illegal trade-off repudiated by the Supreme Court in Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206 , 80 S.Ct. 1437 , 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960), 1 while simultaneously submerging the “imperative of judicial integrity” keynoted in that decision, id. at 222-223 , 80 S.Ct. 1437 . More fundamentally, it unduly warps established legal principles, enabling it to ride roughshod over both state and federal law.

The material facts are these: Federal narcotics agents disclosed drug-related information obtained by means of a duly authorized federal wiretap to their California State counterparts and indicated to the latter the source of that information. The *1238 state agents would have been exceeding the permissible limits of their authority and in violation of both state and federal law if they themselves had conducted the wiretap; 2 but they nevertheless acted upon the information and not only set up surveillance on one Cooper, who the federal agents had stated might be in possession of narcotics, but also stopped the…

(concurring):

I concur in the judgment of affirmance, but for a different reason from those stated in Judge Choy’s opinion. In my opinion, we need not reach the question of whether the arrest and the search of Hall’s purse were illegal because based upon wiretap information which could not be used by state officers. Hall does not have standing to raise the issue.

At the suppression hearing, Agent Reyes, the federal agent who conducted the tap, testified as follows [RT, Vol. 7, pp. 57-70]: Four telephone calls bearing on this case were intercepted. Three were between one Cooper, the driver of the car in which Hall was arrested, and one Sandra Woodrow; the fourth was between a John Lewis and Sandra Woodrow. Hall’s telephone was not tapped; no conversation in which she participated was intercepted.

*1236 Agent Miller, the Field Supervisor of the State Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement who led the arresting officers, testified that he received a phone call from Federal Agent Reyes telling him that based on a federal wiretap [RT 38], Reyes had reason to believe that one Cooper and an unidentified woman, who were traveling north on highway 99 in the vicinity of Fresno, were transporting…

(concurring):

While I believe Judge Duniway’s views on “no standing” are correct, a majority has apparently rejected his contentions. Since we have reached this point, I now concur in Judge Choy’s opinion.

543 F.2d 1229 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Clara Bell HALL, Defendant-Appellant. No. 73-2826. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Aug. 31, 1976. Certiorari Denied Jan. 25, 1977. See 97 S.Ct. 814 Allan B. Streller (argued), of Silver, Streller & Wells, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendant-appellant. Jerry L. Newton, Asst. U.S. Atty. (argued), Los Angles, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee. Before CHAMBERS, KOELSCH, BROWNING, DUNIWAY, ELY, HUFSTEDLER, WRIGHT, TRASK, CHOY, GOODWIN, WALLACE, SNEED, and KENNEDY, Circuit Judges. CHOY, Circuit Judge: 1 Clara Bell Hall appeals from a conviction for possession of heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 844 (a). Her appeal presents the question of the admissibility in federal court of evidence seized pursuant to an arrest by California officers when that arrest was based on the state agents' use of information gathered by wiretaps authorized under federal law but illegal under California law. We affirm, holding such evidence to be admissible.Backround 2 On February 6, 1973, California state officers approached an automobile driven by James Kirkpatrick Cooper, in which Hall was a passenger, after the car had stopped…