White Collar Roundup - December 2013

Only a Local Court Can Order a Local Tap

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia perpetuated a circuit split in United States v. Glover in suppressing wiretap evidence. In Glover, the prosecutors obtained a wiretap order from a district judge in D.C. for a listening device on a truck in Maryland. In reversing the trial court's denial of the defendants' suppression motion, vacating the conviction and remanding for a new trial, the court of appeals ruled that (1) a judge in one district cannot approve the placement of a listening device on property in another district; (2) a violation of this restriction requires suppression, regardless of whether it is a "core concern" of the statute (which other circuits have considered under these circumstances); and (3) there is no good-faith exception for violations of Title III.