Massachusetts Man Guilty of Wiretapping for Taping Police Harassment

[John Albino]

Declan,

Here's an AP article which appeared in the Boston Globe Friday. 
http://www.boston.com/news/daily/13/police_recording.htm

The Mass. Supreme Court essentially says that it is illegal wiretapping to 
secretly videotape police officers harassing someone during a traffic stop. 
Wonder if using a film camera would also be wiretapping?
-- 
John Albino
mailto:jalbino at jwalbino.com

*********

The opinion is here:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=ma&vol=sjcslip/8429&invol=1
>GREANEY, J. This case raises the issue whether a motorist may be 
>prosecuted for violating the Massachusetts electronic surveillance 
>statute, G. L. c. 272, § 99, for secretly tape recording statements made 
>by police officers during a routine traffic stop. A jury in the District 
>Court convicted the defendant on four counts of a complaint charging him 
>with unlawfully intercepting the oral communications of another, in 
>violation of G. L. c. 272, § 99 F. The defendant appealed, and we granted 
>his application for direct appellate review. We conclude that G. L. c. 
>272, § 99, strictly prohibits the secret electronic recording by a private 
>individual of any oral communication, and makes no exception for a 
>motorist who, having been stopped by police officers, surreptitiously tape 
>records the encounter. Accordingly, we affirm the judgments of conviction. 
>[...]
>
>During the course of the stop, which lasted approximately fifteen to 
>twenty minutes, the defendant and his passenger, Daniel Hartesty, were 
>ordered out of the automobile, and Hartesty was pat frisked. One officer 
>reached into the automobile, picked up a plastic shopping bag that lay on 
>the floor by the passenger seat, and looked inside. (The bag contained 
>compact discs.) At one point, the defendant stated that the stop was "a 
>bunch of bullshit," and that he had been stopped because of his long hair. 
>One officer responded, "Don't lay that shit on me." Later, another officer 
>called the defendant "an asshole." The defendant was asked whether he had 
>any "blow" (cocaine) in the car. [...]

*********

The text of the statute is here:
http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/272%2D99.htm
>Except as otherwise specifically provided in this section any person whoª
>willfully commits an interception, attempts to commit an interception, or 
>procures any other person to commit an interception or to attempt to 
>commit an interception of any wire or oral ommunication shall be fined not 
>more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisoned in the state prison for not 
>more than five years, or imprisoned in a jail or house of correction for 
>not more than two and one half years, or both so fined and given one such 
>imprisonment.

*********




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