United States v. Di Re

In United States v. Di Re (1948) 332 U.S. 581, an informant told an investigator that he was to buy counterfeit gasoline ration coupons from a certain Buttitta at a place in Buffalo. The investigator and a detective followed Buttitta's car and came upon it parked at the appointed place. Inside they found the informant with two counterfeit coupons in his hand, Buttitta, and defendant. All three were arrested and searched. Additional counterfeit gasoline coupons were found on defendant. (Id. at p. 583.) The government sought to justify the warrantless arrest on the basis that defendant was engaged in a felony conspiracy. The United States Supreme Court disagreed. There was no evidence linking defendant to the counterfeit coupons obtained from Buttitta. "The argument that one who 'accompanies a criminal to a crime rendezvous' cannot be assumed to be a bystander, forceful enough in some circumstances, is farfetched when the meeting is not secretive or in a suspicious hide-out but in broad daylight, in plain sight of passersby, in a public street of a large city, and where the alleged substantive crime is one which does not necessarily involve any act visibly criminal." (Di Re, supra, at p. 593.) Further, the informant identified only Buttitta as the guilty party. (Id. at p. 594.)