- 7 - before them. The Court stated that civil enforcement of Federal tax laws lay outside the "zone of interest" of the State police officers involved in Janis. As a result of that and other factors, the Court concluded that excluding tainted evidence in a civil tax proceeding was unlikely to have a significant deterrent effect. The Court left open the possibility, however, that the balance might shift in favor of exclusion if the State police officer involved had a "responsibility or duty to, or agreement with" Federal tax officials. Id. at 455. Since Janis, courts considering whether to apply the exclusionary rule in Federal civil tax cases have examined the "zone of interest" of the police officers involved and have generally looked for some sort of agreement between Federal tax officials and the officers who conducted the allegedly improper search. See, e.g., Tirado v. Commissioner, 689 F.2d 307 (2d Cir. 1982), affg. on other grounds 74 T.C. 14 (1980). Tirado extended the Janis rationale to a case where some of the officers conducting the search were employed by a Federal agency, namely the Bureau of Narcotics, and another Federal agency, i.e., the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), sought to use the allegedly tainted evidence (a so-called intrasovereign situation). In Tirado, Federal narcotics agents took part in a search that uncovered cash, documents, and other items which were later sought to be used in a Federal civil tax proceeding. AlthoughPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
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