United States v. Michael William CleggUnited States v. Michael William Clegg
Michael W. Clegg was convicted of thirteen counts of wirefraud violations of
In May, 1972, Billy D. Hubbard, a Southwestern Bell security supervisor, received information from a Victor Brookshire that appellant Clegg might be using an electronic device called a “blue box” to circumvent the toll call billing system of the phone company. After a meeting with Brookshire at which Special Agent R. W. Suter of the FBI was present, Hubbard attached a TTS 176 device to Clegg’s business and residence telephone lines. This device, which is capable of detecting blue box calls, monitors the line to which it is attached and produces a paper tape record of the time and date of all outgoing telephone calls, local and long distance, complete and incomplete. On the day following its installation, the TTS 176 detected illegal long distance calls emanating from Clegg’s business phone. Later the machine noticed that similar calls were being placed from his residence telephone. In all, over two hundred blue box calls were discovered by the TTS 176 during the period of approximately four months that it was used to keep tabs on Clegg’s calls.
Once Hubbard had established that blue box calls were being placed from Clegg’s telephone, he took steps to verify that the calls were being completed and to identify the illegal caller. 2 This he did by attaching a recorder, as well as the TTS 176, to Clegg’s lines and recording audibly the ringing and salutations only of fifteen to twenty blue box calls. From the salutations alone the caller was identified as appellant.
Hubbard testified that during the period that the TTS 176 was monitoring Clegg’s calls there was an ongoing nationwide investigation being conducted by both the FBI and Bell security investigators. The purpose of this investigation was to identify the source of the blue boxes. For it to succeed, coordination was required, and it was necessary that the arrest of all blue box users be as nearly simultaneous as possible. Thus, Hubbard kept Agent Suter, who was conducting an investigation on his own, informed of the status of the telephone company’s investigation and of the fact that blue box calls were being detected. He denied that he informed
Special Agent Suter testified that as a result of prior anonymous tips and the information provided by Brookshire he undertook his own investigation of Clegg. His investigation was conducted in conjunction with the FBI office in Minneapolis. 3 At a time coordinated with the Minneapolis office, search warrants for Clegg’s home and office, as well as a warrant for his arrest, were obtained. When the warrants were executed on September 11, 1972, Clegg was discovered in the act of using a blue box. He was arrested, and pursuant to the search warrant the blue box and several pamphlets explaining its use were seized.
Clegg’s argument that the paper tapes printed by the TTS 176 and the voice recordings were obtained in violation of his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures is bottomed on either the assumption that Investigator Hubbard was for all purposes a
de facto
agent of the FBI, or that Agent Suter participated in every aspect of Bell’s investigation. If either were true, there would be governmental action involved and a serious possibility that the warrantless monitoring of Clegg’s telephones with the TTS 176
and the voice recorder
would have violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Katz v. United States,
The fact that United States law enforcement authorities were informed that the investigation was underway and that it had uncovered evidence of criminal activity does not automatically change its private nature. Nor does the fact that Suter knew of the existence and nature of Hubbard’s investigation necessarily make him a participant in all of it. It is only when the govern-" ment has preknowledge of and yet acquiesces in a private party’s conducting a search and seizure which the government itself, under the circumstances, could not have undertaken . that the problem discussed in United States v. Mekjian,
In the case under consideration it is important to note that Agent Suter of the FBI had no foreknowledge that Investigator Hubbard intended to or would aurally acquire any of the
content
of Clegg’s conversations. It is undisputed that all that the FBI knew was that Hubbard intended to and subsequently did successfully monitor Clegg’s telephone lines with the TTS 176. As mentioned, this device, which is similar in function to a pen register,
5
notes only the existence (including the time of a call and the number dialed) of telephonic communications. It discloses nothing of the content. The Fourth Amendment, however, protects only the content of a telephone conversation and not the fact that a call was placed or that a particular number was dialed. United States v. Baxter,
Since forbidden governmental action was absent, Fourth Amendment considerations are inapplicable to the question of the admissibility of either the TTS 176 paper tapes or the voice
Clegg contends that the evidence of his use of the blue box was obtained in violation of
18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(a)(i) provides that: (2)(a)(i) It shall not be unlawful under this chapter for an operator of a switchboard, or an officer, employee, or agent of any communication common carrier, whose facilities are used in the transmission of a wire communication, to intercept, disclose, or use that communication in the normal course of his employment while engaged in any activity which is a necessary incident to the rendition of his service or to the protection of the rights or property of the carrier of such communication: Provided, That said communication common carriers shall not utilize service observing or random monitoring except for mechanical or service quality control checks.
This subsection, which is an amended version of its 1968 predecessor,
[Pjrovides that it shall not be unlawful for an operator of a switchboard or employees of a common carrier to intercept, disclose, or use wire communications in the normal course of their employment while engaged in any activity which is a necessary incident to the rendition of his service or the protection of the rights of property of the carrier. It is intended to reflect existing law. (United States v. Beckley,259 F.Supp. 567 (D.C.Ga.1965). 1968 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 2182. (Emphasis added.)
The reference in legislative history to
Beckley
is significant. That case, like ours, involved the question of the admissibility of certain evidence obtained by a phone company wiretap. It holds that the then current version of
It is unnecessary for us at this juncture to decide whether
Our holding in this respect is nothing more than a recognition that Congress did not intend that the enactment of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1968 would eliminate the court-created exception to old
Clegg questions whether the fruits of Bell’s investigation of him would have been admissible under the case law which created the protection-of-the-telephone-company-property exception to old
the monitoring and tape recording for ... [a three month period], after ample evidence had been secured of the illegal use by appellant of the company’s facilities, was unreasonable and unnecessary. Bubis, supra,384 F.2d at 648 .
Bubis, however, is not in point; for it concerned lengthy and continuous monitoring of the contents of the calls. It is our conclusion that, taking all circumstances into account, Bell’s four-month investigation was reasonably necessary for the protection of its property rights. We stress in so holding that Hubbard’s investigation was so limited that there was minimal intercept of the audible content of Clegg’s telephone calls. 14
Admittedly, it is likely that Bell could have procured the arrest, indictment and probably the conviction of Clegg on the basis of evidence which it collected during the first few days of its investigation. The conviction of Clegg for wire-fraud would, of course, have had the effect of eliminating him as an abuser of the long distance lines. However, the arrest of Clegg in May would also have had the effect of possibly alerting the manufacturer and other users of the blue box to the nationwide investigations of both the telephone company and the FBI. It is not reasonable to interpret
Also included among Clegg’s reasons why his conviction should be reversed are (1) that the introduction of tapes of his voice at his trial violated his Fifth Amendment right to stand mute before the jury, (2) that, in spite of the fact that he was prosecuted in a federal court by the federal government, his Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated because Texas courts would have excluded the TTS 176 paper tapes and the voice tapes, (3) that the search and arrest warrants obtained by Agent Suter were issued without probable cause, (4) that the search warrant did not describe his blue box with sufficient particularity, and (5) that there was no proof that Southwestern Bell’s billing procedures were bypassed. All these points of error are meritless and are rejected.
Affirmed.
Notes
.
Except as authorized by chapter 119, Title 18, no person receiving, assisting in receiving, transmitting, or assisting in transmitting, any interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or mean
. Verification that the calls were completed was necessary in order to make a case against Clegg. This is so because a telephone company does not bill for dialing. It only charges for completed calls. Thus, in order to prove that it has been fraudulently deprived of monies due it, a telephone company must necessarily be able to show both that its billing procedures were bypassed and that completed calls were made. The identity of the person placing the illegal call is, of course, also essential.
. Apparently both Bell’s and the FBI’s investigations were being coordinated from their respective Minneapolis offices.
. In wiretap situations the strictures placed upon the government by Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 would also have to be complied with.
. For a definition and discussion of the capabilities of a pen register, see In re Joyce,
. Since a pen register or, we conclude, a TTS 176, again, used alone, does not intercept communication within the meaning of
. Or Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. See footnote 6 above.
. The salutations were, of course, part of the aural content of Clegg’s conversations. Had government action been involved in recording them, there is no doubt that both the Fourth Amendment and Title III would have been violated.
.
“As used in this chapter—
(1) ‘wire communication’ means any communication made in whole or in part through the use of facilities for the transmission of communications by the aid of wire, cable, or other like connection between the point of origin and the point of reception furnished or operated by any person engaged as a common carrier in providing or operating such facilities for the transmission of interstate or foreign communications; . .”
.
§ 605 . Unauthorized publication or use of communications
No person receiving or assisting in receiving, or transmitting, or assisting intransmitting, any interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning thereof, except through authorized channels of transmission or reception, to any person other than the addressee, his agent, or attorney, or to a person employed or authorized to forward such communication to its destination, or to proper accounting or distributing officers of the various communicating centers over which the communication may be passed, or to the master of a ship under whom he is serving, or in response to a subpena issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, or on demand of other lawful authority; and no person not being authorized by the sender shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person; and no person not being entitled thereto shall receive or assist in receiving any interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio and use the same or any information therein contained for his own benefit or for the benefit of another not entitled thereto; and no person having received such intercepted communication or having become acquainted with the contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of the same or any part thereof, knowing that such information was so obtained, shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of the same or any part thereof, or use the same or any information therein contained for his own benefit or for the benefit of another not entitled thereto: Provided, That this section shail not apply to the receiving, divulging, publishing, or utilizing the contents of any radio communication broadcast, or transmitted by amateurs or others for the use of the general public, or relating to ships in distress.
The legislative history of the 1968 amendment makes clear the congressional purpose for the modification of
This section amendssection 605 of the Communications Act of 1934 (48 Stat. 1103,47 U.S.C. sec. 605 (1958)). This section is not intended merely to be a reenactment ofsection 605 . The new provision is intended as a substitute. The regulation of the interception of wire or oral communications in the future is to be governed by proposed new chapter 119 of title 18, United States Code. 1968 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News, p. 2196.
. Recording of the salutations is necessary to protect the property rights of a telephone company. Completion of the call must be shown both in a prosecution for wirefraud and to entitle the company to charge the caller for the use of its long distance service. See footnote 2. Infra.
. Clegg argues mightily in his brief that use by the telephone company of the TTS 176, a device which he characterizes as superior to a pen register, was unreasonable and unnecessary. He points out that this device makes a record not only of blue box calls but also of legitimate long distance calls and local calls. It notes all calls, whether they are complete or incomplete. We are unwilling to hold that in such circumstances as these, where illegitimate calls are being made, it was incumbent on the company to install either no device or one so sophisticated — if such there be — 'as to select out and pass over Clegg’s legitimate uses of the telephone. What the company did here was not unreasonable. And, as mentioned above, we see no viable distinction between the TTS 176 and the pen register.
. -That Congress intended this restriction is obvious from the language of the proviso of
. In Bubis the telephone company had recorded the entire content of all calls placed.
. We note that