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How much should you charge for a photograph?Mass. D.A. Says No Wiretapping Laws Broken When Cops Have No Expectation Of Privacy
Springfield Police Officer Michael Sedergren proved to have a lot of chutzpah when he filed an application for a criminal complaint against a woman who videotaped him participating in the beating of a man who was left unconscious on the side of the road.
Sedergren - who was suspended for 45 days - was alleging that his rights were violated when she recorded him from inside her home back in 2009 in the incident that left Melvin Jones III with nearly every bone in his face broken, teeth knocked out and partially blinded in one eye.
He was hoping to use Massachusetts' ambigious wiretapping law against Tyrisha Greene, which could have had her facing five years in prison.
The state law makes it a crime to secretly record somebody’s audio. And unlike most states, it does not include an expectation of privacy provision, which would explicitly allow on-duty cops to be recorded in public.
However, on Wednesday, Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni declared there must be an expectation of privacy for the law to apply. This led to Sedergen's application being thrown out.
According to The Republican:
Assistant Clerk Magistrate Joanne M. McCarthy rejected the application after a short closed-door hearing. The Republican unsuccessfully petitioned to open the hearing to the public. McCarthy denied the petition based on Sedergren’s objection, according to those present.
The fact that Sedergren failed to criminalize Greene on wiretapping charges for videotaping him could set precedent in a state where the precedent hasn’t been very clear, meaning his retaliatory attempts may have backfired.
And this could spell good news for Robert Mansfield, who was arrested last month in Brockton on wiretapping charges for recording a cop during a traffic stop without his knowledge.
Mansfield may or may not have been secretly recording, but it should make it more difficult to prosecute him on wiretapping charges when the cop in his case had as much expectation of privacy as Sedergren did during the beating.
It’s not much different from the Anthony Graber case in Maryland last year where a judge ruled that a police officer pulling a motorist over does not have an expectation of privacy and can therefore be audio-recorded without their consent or knowledge.
This pretty much leaves Illinois as the only state in the country where it is illegal to record on-duty police officers in public.
Jones is suing Sedergen for kicking him in the groin and back during the altercation two years ago.
The main culprit in that incident is a rogue cop named Jeffrey Asher who was fired for beating Jones with a flashlight, but only after being granted a disability pension.
Mastroianni, who has been in office less than a year, has vowed to fully prosecute Asher on assault with a deadly weapon charges. The trial is set for December.
Comments
nothing else to say about this story.... well perhaps there is!
Springfield Police Officer Michael Sedergren, your not a douche, you are a "super douche bag!" now cut down on the stupid pills, your taking way to many.
Yeah . . . name calling is so productive.
I have no problem referring to asshole cops as douche bags, after all so many work so hard to earn that name.
It's spelled "you're." Both times.
Oh here come the Spelling Police! That's so fucking important to this story.
If a person is going to call someone else "stupid" as this person did, it helps their case if they know how to spell and use proper punctuation and grammar. Otherwise, they end up looking stupid themselves.
It is at least as important to the story as calling someone a "douche".
A most welcome piece of good news! One injustice down, countless more to go.
This might not help Mansfield. I suspect that an officer leaning over an open car window, talking to the driver of a stopped car in a low tone might have some small expectation of privacy.
Wrong. They're in public. An expectation privacy does not exist no matter where they are standing or speaking when they're in public space, including inside the police station or a patrol unit.
More important, a conversation between a police officer and a detainee is inherently not private because anything that is said will be used against you in a PUBLIC court of law. Law enforcement can't claim their portion of the conversation is private, but the detainee's isn't.
That's not how it works.
Great news! Cops should have ZERO expectation of privacy while on the job...
DA Mastroianni hasn't been on the job long enough to figure out these cops where just having a bad day because of their stressful jobs, NOT.
About time a DA stepped up to the plate and prosecuted some of this cop misbehaviour, Good Job, Keep Up the Good Work. All of the cops involved in this case need to be prosecuted for something. If the cops aren't going to keep other cops in line the people need to hire DA's that will.
It's just silly to expect that the local DA's office is going to willing prosecute the people that they depend on to make their criminal cases. Can you say sleeping with the enemy?
The only way to reign in the police is to turn these cases over to special prosecutors that have no connection to the local police or the local DA's office, and stop letting police departments investigate themselves.
Criminal misconduct by those that are charged with protecting our rights is perhaps the most egregious of crimes, but like a herd of bleating sheep we continue to allow it to happen.
Amazing news...things are starting to change for the better in Massachusetts.
Nobody has an expectation of privacy while in public in Massachusetts, including all government officials and police officers. Which means, we can record them without their knowledge and not face a BS felony/criminal charge.
If using a video camera in public is wiretapping, then it outlaws the use of dash cams and some security cameras without a warrant, since the wiretap law's exemption for law enforcement requires a warrant to qualify for the exemption.
A cop who illegally wiretaps people is going to prison just as surely as any non-cop is, going by what the law says.
Video taping is legal, it's the audio track that is part of most video that is illegal under the wiretap statute. This is why surveillance cameras are allowed. Most dash cams record video only.
Most dash cams I've seen DO have audio. If a department is going to spend the money to install video equipment, they're going to put a mic on the officer too. Maybe podunk departments are an exception.
EVERYONE should be familiar with the Civil Rights Attorney Fees Award Act passed by congress. Basically it is for whenever a citizen is wronged by unconstitutional/illegal action on the part of the government at any level, the citizen can sue and if they prevail the attorneys fees are paid by the government.
Please contact Mastroianni's office to let him know that he did the right thing. Also remind him that the Masschusetts' wiretapping law is wrong and that an expectation of privacy does not exist while in public.
Mark G. Mastroianni
Hall of Justice
50 State Street
Springfield, MA 01103
PHONE: (413) 747-1000
FAX: (413) 781-4745
Well that's great news.
"This pretty much leaves Illinois..."
IL. hates the Constitution. Ask 'em about the 2nd Amendment sometime. Or about their two Governors currently behind bars. Or about how they had to have an emergency stay on the Death Penalty after it came to light that almost all convictions were eventually overturned. Because the accused were innocent.
"IL. hates the Constitution. Ask 'em about the 2nd Amendment sometime. Or about their two Governors currently behind bars..."
Hell, let em fester in corruption and tyranny.
They don't realize they've become the laughing stock
of the world. Shhh...don't let them know...
outstanding!
I think Sedergren needs another 45 days off without pay for filing false charges, retaliation, and abuse of authority.
I think he needs 47,450 more days "off" in a 6'X6' box.
(to be clear, the box refers to a jail cell)
Where's fart the dumb ass kepple? I thought he said she was wiretapping and it was illegal? You and jonie law are quite the pair. One ass cheek + one ass cheek = Dumb Ass.
Touche.
You are displaying all the social sophistication of a fence post.
This is why it is important for the people to spread this around to let people know it's important.
And to show Mastroianni that the people are behind him.
Well c'mon Johnnie; we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop here
Anyone who was around in the olden days remembers that the reason these wiretap laws were enacted was due to the excesses of Tricky Dick Nixon. They were intended to protect the People from the Government. An extension of this philosphy is the right to provide evidence of government's apparent excesses. Perfectly legitimate if the US Consitution is in force.
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