In re Soto-Davila
Opinion of the Court
OPINION & ORDER
On January 5,1983 a subpoena was issued on application of the United States commanding Mr. Raymond Soto-Dávila' (witness) to appear in this district Court on
After evaluating the government’s statement of purpose of the investigation the Court denied petitioner’s oral motion and ordered the witness to submit to the grand jury the fingerprints, head hair samples and handwriting exemplars requested and to participate in a line-up. Thereupon, he was instructed to return to the grand jury room and submit the information requested by the grand jury in compliance with the Court’s order, and he was expressly advised that if he again refused to do so after being ordered, he had to appear before the Court immediately thereafter for a civil contempt hearing and, if found to be in contempt, he was advised that he was subject to confinement for the term of the grand jury, including extensions, and that in no event Would such confinement extend for a period in excess of eighteen months, unless he elected to comply with the Court’s order.
The witness then returned to the grand jury room and again refused to submit the information requested and to participate in a line-up, despite the Court’s order to do so.
Due to an error by the Clerk’s Office, in the notification by telephone of the January 14, 1983 order, the parties were only informed initially that a meeting in chambers would be held on January 18, 1983 at 2:30 PM. It was only on the afternoon prior to the January 18, 1983 meeting in chambers that they received the January 14 order in the mail. Although the witness’ attorneys were prepared to make their offer of proof during the conference in chambers, they were unable to meet the deadline previously fixed to file the affidavits in support of their illegal electronic surveillance defense. For this reason, the witness was granted until January 19, 1983 before noon to file the affidavit, which he has done, and the government was allowed until 5:00 PM of that day to submit its responsive affidavit.
During the meeting in chambers the witness’ attorneys set forth the following defenses to civil contempt:
1— That the grand jury investigation and his subpoena as a witness were motivated by information obtained from illegal electronic surveillance.
2— That there was a need to require the government to make a greater showing of relevance of the information sought since the grand jury was being abused in this case by targeting the witness because of his political activities
The attorneys for Mr. Soto-Dávila made their offer of proof in compliance with the January 14, 1983 order. They informed that they would offer the testimony of special agent Richard Held, in charge of the FBI, San Juan offices, Isis Torres de Conty and Gilberto Lugo, coworkers of the witness and Carmen Gautier Mayoral, a University of Puerto Rico professor of political sciences who, they asserted, is an expert on the growth of political repression and repression against the independence movement in Puerto Rico who would testify on
Having examined the offer of proof made by the witness, the defenses which he has raised to the civil contempt charge, his affidavit in support thereof and the government’s responsive affidavits the Court now determines the scope of its inquiry during the civil contempt hearing, the need for an evidentiary hearing of the type requested by the witness and the issues or defenses which can legitimately be raised by the witness in this type of proceeding.
Electronic Surveillance
On January 18, 1983 the grand jury witness filed a Motion Renewing Earlier Motions, to wit, his application for an order to disclose informant filed on December 17, 1982 and his Motion for Search and Disclosure of Electronic or other Surveillance filed on that same date. The latter motion contained an all-embracing discovery request of “all voice records, tapes, mechanical or electrical recordings, logs, records, memoranda, letters and airtels of any electronic or other surveillance” which was accompanied by a brief affidavit sworn by the witness on December 17, 1982 in which he stated that during the months of April and May, up to December 1982 he “encountered many problems in the use of [his] telephone,” that “often there was a great amount of interference in the lines making it difficult to hear or communicate with the other party,” that he has need of this phone to call clients and lawyers and that he has been identified as a suspect in the matter under investigation, which gives him additional reasons to believe that he has been the subject of illegal electronic surveillance. In compliance with the Court’s January 14, 1983 order, the witness filed another affidavit sworn on January 19, 1983 in which he repeats the assertions contained in his prior affidavit. and adds that since December, specifically on December 29, 1982 and on January 7, 1983, employees or persons with uniforms of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company asked permission to check the phone lines passing through the back of his residence, that in the past few months he has encountered numerous problems with his phones while making phone calls connected with his political work for the United Committee Against Repression, that the calls were severed on many times on his first attempt to establish communications, that his friends have informed him that during the past few weeks it has been difficult to reach him on the phone since “either it rings and no one picks it up or rings for a longer time before being answered,” and finally, that during the past two weeks he received three calls at his home during which no one spoke, although the phone rang and he and his wife heard when the phone was hung. The government filed two declarations pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3504. One of these is made by María Villarruel, special agent of the FBI assigned to the investigation of an armed robbery of a Wells Fargo armored truck which occurred on September 16, 1982 in Carolina, Puerto Rico which resulted in the robbery of $175,-000 in cash and the death of one person. She states that since the day of the robbery she has personally conducted a substantial portion of the investigation and is aware of the investigation conducted by other FBI agents in relation to this case; that her investigation has led to the identification of the witness as a possible suspect; that none of the investigative procedures used by her to identify him as such involved the use of electronic surveillance; that she has checked the records of the FBI and at no time has the witness been the subject of electronic surveillance; that she also checked FBI records to see if any information has been provided to the FBI regarding electronic surveillance by other agencies
The defense of illegal electronic surveillance is one of the defenses available to a grand jury witness facing civil contempt charges to justify his refusal to obey a court’s order to testify or to submit information to the grand jury requesting it. Gelbard v. United States, 408 U.S. 41, 92 S.Ct. 2357, 33 L.Ed.2d 179 (1972); 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2515. Although the Gelbard ruling was the object of a vigorous dissenting opinion, our Circuit examined and applied it in its decision in In Re Marcus, 491 F.2d 901 (1st Cir. 1974). Granted that such a defense is available to a witness, when the government denies in its response pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3504 the existence of unlawful surveillance such denial disposes of the defense, if found to be sufficient. In the Gelbard dissent, it is noted that even assuming that the unlawful surveillance defense applies to witnesses summoned to testify before the grand jury, the denial by the government of the occurrence of the unlawful act should be sufficient for disposition of the case on such a claim. Our Circuit has recognized the need to proceed further where surveillance has been court authorized and even then scrutiny has been confined “to what is revealed by the authorizing documents, to test whether they suggest any unlawfulness in authorization or implementation.” In Re Lochiatto, 497 F.2d 803, 808 (1st Cir. 1974). Since the situation before us is one of denial of the existence of electronic surveillance, authorized or illegal, the question the Court must determine is whether the government’s denial by means of affidavits complies with the sufficiency requirements outlined by our Circuit in In Re Quinn, 525 F.2d 222 (1st Cir. 1975) and in In Re Hodges, 524 F.2d 568 (1st Cir. 1975). See also: United States v. Doe (Marx), 451 F.2d 466 (1st Cir. 1971) and In Re Pantojas, 628 F.2d 701 (1st Cir. 1980). The Court finds that the affidavits submitted by the government in this case are identical to those which the Court found sufficient in In Re Pantojas, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3504. There the Court stated that: “The evil which section 3504 attempts to prevent is the use by prosecutors of information obtained through unlawful surveillance to solicit further evidence from a witness. The inability of the affiant to deny with certainty that any government instrumentality had subjected the witness to such surveillance seems to us irrelevant when the affiant can knowingly deny that the results of any such surveillance were passed to the investigators conducting the investigation before the grand jury.” The Court acknowledged in its decision in In Re Quinn that when the government’s denial
Having concluded that the government’s denial meets the sufficiency requirements and that no evidentiary hearing is necessary in the circumstances of this case, the over-broad discovery request for surveillance material is uncalled for, since if the unlawful activity has been satisfactorily denied the existence of surveillance material is also destroyed by such denial. Accordingly the request for an evidentiary hearing and for disclosure of electronic surveillance and other materials is DENIED. Since the subpoena issued to the custodian of FBI records to produce surveillance logs is a discovery request of the same nature, the subpoena is quashed to the extent that it requires production of surveillance logs.
Abuse of Process-Showing of Relevance
During the meeting in chambers held on January 18, 1983 and in his motion filed on that same date, Mr. Soto-Dávila urges that the government must be required to make an adequate preliminary showing of relevance prior to any proceedings to find him in contempt and a further showing of the need for the requested information. The preliminary showing requested by the witness is based on a twofold contention: (1) that the grand jury process has been abused in this case for its investigation is motivated by the fact that he is an active advocate of the independence movement in Puerto Rico and the grand jury subpoena is being used to harass him for his political beliefs, and (2) that the government has all the information regarding the necessity for identification evidence which it seeks. Attached to his January 18,1983 motion is the written statement that Mr. Soto-Dávila read to the grand jury when he was ordered by it to provide the exemplars requested in the subpoena and to participate in a line-up. This statement, which has not yet been translated to the English language, merely states that he is a militant member of the independence movement, the reasons for his political beliefs, accusations made against the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI of judicial terrorism in trying to obtain fingerprints, hair samples and handwriting exemplars and to attempt to compel Puerto Rican patriots to submit to the indignity of a line-up. He concludes his statement by asserting that he will give them nothing, that they are wasting their time and that each refusal and non-collaboration before a federal grand jury represents the victory of the will of the Puerto Rican nation and that those who must provide exemplars and appear in a line-up are the U.S. Attorney, the FBI agents and other North American invaders in Puerto Rico. In addition to this statement allegedly in support of his “abuse of process” defense, Mr. Soto-Dávila has offered the testimony of Mrs. Carmen Gautier Mayoral, a political sciences professor at the University of Puerto Rico who would testify on the basis of her research on how repression is used in Puerto Rico and on the existence of 'local antirepression groups against the federal courts and the federal grand jury. He also offered the testimony of another witness who would testify as to Mr. Soto-Dávila’s political activism in the past decade.
During the hearing on the petition for an order of compliance with the grand jury subpoena which was held immediately before the contempt proceedings, the Assistant U.S. Attorney stated that the grand jury’s inquiry was directed at the armed robbery of a Wells Fargo truck on September 16,1982 as a result of which money was stolen and a person lost his life. He further stated that Mr. Soto-Dávila had been identified by witnesses to this event as one of the persons seen in the getaway car, that this vehicle was traced to a car rental company and that the information provided in the contract turned out to be false. He informed that the evidence sought is needed to compare hair samples and fingerprints obtained with those of the witness, to compare his handwriting with that of the car rental contract and to obtain more reliable identification by use of a line-up. Representations as to the legitimacy of the investigation were also made by Mr. Walker in
In sum, a proper motive for the investigation having been shown, and no adequate showing of abuse of process having been made, no evidentiary hearing is required on this matter. We thus rule that the alleged abuse of process because of political harassment is not a valid reason for the witness’ refusal to comply with the Court’s order.
The second argument in support of the witness’ request for a showing of relevance and in support of just cause for his refusal to comply is grounded on the allegation that all the exemplars requested are currently in the government’s possession. To this end he offered the testimony of two co-workers who would declare that two FBI agents searched his desk at his place of employment where documents filled out by him and containing his signature and handwriting were found and the testimony of the custodian of FBI records to show possession by the government of the exemplars. At the moment he made the offer of proof the witness did not know if the two co-workers would testify that they saw the agents seize the documents found in his desk after the search. He also alleged, without offering proof, that since he is a government employee he must have submitted a certificate of good conduct of the Puerto Rico Police and in obtaining the same he must have been fingerprinted. We agree with the witness that if the government possesses the exemplars sought and, if these are adequate and sufficient, it would be oppressive and unfair to subject him to punishment on account of his refusal to submit them. Nevertheless, although an evidentiary hearing will be permitted for the limited purpose of showing government possession of the exemplars requested, this does not apply to the line-up. Accordingly, the testimony of the custodian of FBI records and of the co-workers shall be allowed but limited to the matter of possession of the exemplars by the government.
SO ORDERED.
. In Re Grand Jury Proceeding (Schofield), 486 F.2d 85 (3rd Cir. 1973) and In Re Pantojas, 628 F.2d 701 (1st Cir. 1980) were cited in support.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In re Grand Jury Proceedings, Raymond SOTO-DAVILA
- Status
- Published