[4phun] Massachusetts electronic surveillance law upheld

[Vic_Healey]

BOSTON (AP) A rock musician who was found guilty of wiretapping after he secretly recorded police during a traffic stop had his conviction upheld by the state's highest court. 
Michael Hyde, 33, said he turned on his tape recorder on Oct. 26, 1998, after being pulled over by Abington police because he believed he had been unfairly targeted because of his long hair, leather jacket and sports car. 

Hyde recorded officers using an obscenity, asking him if he had any cocaine in his car, and threatening to send him to jail. 

They let him go without a ticket, but several days later, Hyde brought the tape to police headquarters to try to prove he was harassed. Instead, he was charged and convicted of breaking the state's electronic surveillance law, getting six months of probation. 

Hyde said the Supreme Judicial Court's decision Friday "slapped the people of Massachusetts very hard in the face." 

At Hyde's trial, police testified they pulled him over because of the loud revving of his car's engine, a noisy muffler and a broken license plate light. 

The court rejected Hyde's argument that the surveillance law was not applicable because police were performing their public duties and therefore had no reasonable expectation of privacy. 

"We conclude that the Legislature intended (the law) strictly to prohibit all secret recordings by members of the public, including recordings of police officers or other public officials interacting with members of the public, when made without their permission or knowledge," Justice John M. Greaney wrote in the majority opinion. 

In a strongly worded dissent, the two justices said the wiretapping statute was not meant to prevent citizens from recording an encounter with police. 

Chief Justice Margaret Marshall and Justice Robert Cordy used the famous videotape of the Rodney King police beating in Los Angeles as an example of a recording that would have been prohibited under Massachusetts law. 

Prosecutor Robert Thompson said the language of the law explicitly protects the privacy rights of all individuals, whether they are private citizens or police officers. 

Hyde vowed to continue his fight. 

"Right now I am looking for an attorney who wants to take this to a federal court," he said. "If I drop this right now it could negatively affect a lot of people." 


Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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