Opinion ID: 526505
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Wiretapped Phone Conversations

Text: 7 The next issue, raised by the Lopezes, is a more conventional invocation of privacy. They argue that the introduction into evidence of tape recordings of the phone calls that Baltazar Lopez made from the prison to Juan Lopez outside the prison violated the federal wiretapping statute, 18 U.S.C. Secs. 2510 et seq. The statute indeed forbids the use in evidence of wiretaps made in violation of it, see 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2515, but the government relies on two exceptions. Section 2510(5)(ii) excepts wiretapping by an investigative or law enforcement officer in the ordinary course of his duties, that is, by any officer of the United States or of a State or political subdivision thereof, who is empowered by law to conduct investigations.... 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2510(7). And Section 2511(2)(c) allows wiretapping where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception. Taking the second of these exceptions first, we note that significant efforts were made to notify inmates that their telephone calls (other than to their lawyers) would be monitored, including signs in both English and Spanish to this effect which were posted within four to six inches of each phone; and while Baltazar Lopez claims to be illiterate in both languages, there was a good deal of evidence that he knew the phones were probably tapped. 4 The government argues that since Lopez knew the phones were tapped and used them anyway, he consented to their being tapped. 8 Although accepted in United States v. Amen, 831 F.2d 373, 378-379 (2d Cir.1987), on the basis of considerable case authority and some legislative history, this argument is troubling. To take a risk is not the same thing as to consent. The implication of the argument is that since wiretapping is known to be a widely employed investigative tool, anyone suspected of criminal (particularly drug) activity who uses a phone consents to have his phone tapped--particularly if he speaks in code, thereby manifesting an awareness of the risk. 5 Yet the more the government engages in wiretapping, the less protection people may have against illegal wiretapping. 9 Despite our apprehension about applying the second exception to the wiretapping statute to this case, the first exception is clearly satisfied. The regulations of the Bureau of Prisons authorized the tape recording of all prisoner calls except to prisoners' lawyers, and Baltazar Lopez's calls to his son were recorded in accordance with this routine, which was the ordinary course for the officers who supervised the monitoring system. See United States v. Paul, 614 F.2d 115, 116-117 (6th Cir.1980) (taping of prisoners' calls falls within law enforcement exception). The Lopezes do not argue that the prison should have obtained an intercept order (the equivalent of a search warrant) before tapping these calls. Their only argument is that Lieutenant Gunja, a prison investigator who reviewed the tapes of the Lopezes' conversations and used the information he gleaned from this review as part of his investigation of the Lopezes, violated the following regulation of the Bureau of Prisons: When it appears likely that the incident may be subject to criminal prosecution, the investigating officer shall suspend the investigation, 28 C.F.R. Sec. 541.14(b)(1). The idea behind the regulation is that at this point the matter should be turned over to the FBI or some other federal investigatory agency, rather than handled by prison staff members such as Lieutenant Gunja. 10 But even if Gunja had violated the regulation, it would not follow that the tape recordings should be excluded from evidence. The making of the tape recordings did not violate the wiretapping statute, the recordings were concededly done as part of a routine procedure, and we know of no other ground on which they could be excluded from evidence. The Lopezes' only complaint is that someone other than Gunja should have reviewed the tape after that point at which Gunja should have known that activity subject to criminal prosecution was being planned. Although the wiretapping statute itself requires exclusion of evidence obtained in violation of it, see 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2515, and of course the Fourth and Fifth Amendments provide bases for exclusionary rules, there is no comparable counterpart for which to exclude this evidence on this basis. 6