Opinion ID: 891652
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Abuse of Privacy Act

Text: {9} Defendant argues that the phone calls in question were recorded in violation of Section 30-12-1 of the Abuse of Privacy Act (Act), NMSA 1978, §§ 30-12-1 to -11 (1963, as amended through 1979), which prohibits the knowing interference of communication without lawful authority by reading, interrupting, taking or copying any message, communication or report intended for another by telegraph or telephone without the consent of a sender or intended recipient thereof [.] Section 30-12-1(C). An exception is provided when one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception, monitoring or recording of such communication. Section 30-12-1(E)(3). {10} Two Court of Appeals opinions have addressed this question and held that the Act is not violated when a prisoner impliedly consents to the recording of calls placed from jail. In State v. Coyazo, 1997-NMCA-029, 123 N.M. 200, 936 P.2d 882, cert. denied, 123 N.M. 168, 936 P.2d 337 (1997), the defendant was in jail awaiting trial on first degree murder charges when he placed a call on the jail phone, next to which was a sign stating that all calls were subject to monitoring and recording. The Court of Appeals consulted case law discussing the analogous federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2511, to conclude the defendant's consent to the recording could be shown by circumstantial evidence, namely, the sign next to the phone stating that the call was subject to recording. Coyazo, 1997-NMCA-029, ¶¶ 10, 13, 16, 123 N.M. 200, 936 P.2d 882. In Templeton, the Court of Appeals affirmed the Coyazo application of the exception in the Act to calls made in jail. The Court reiterated that consent may be implied where adequate notice has been given an inmate that phone calls are subject to recording. 2007-NMCA-108, ¶ 15, 142 N.M. 369, 165 P.3d 1145 (stating that adequate notice includes signs near telephones indicating that calls may be monitored, information in orientation or prison handbooks provided to inmates, forms signed by inmates consenting to monitoring procedures, [and] recordings on telephones that indicate the monitoring policy prior to the placing of a call). The Court found that the recording of a call placed from the booking area, where no notice was given that calls could be recorded, violated the Act. Id. ¶ 16. However, the Templeton Court concluded that a call placed from inside the jail, where there were signs next to the phone stating that the call would be recorded and an automated recording informed the caller that the call was being recorded before the number dialed was connected, did not violate the Act because the defendant had consented to the recording by placing the call with the knowledge that it would be recorded. Id. ¶¶ 23-24. {11} Defendant's briefs do not attempt to distinguish Coyazo and Templeton and do nothing more than reference arguments made in response to the State's motion in limine, which is an unacceptable appellate practice. See Rule 12-213(A)(4) NMRA. We agree with the Court of Appeals' analyses in Coyazo and Templeton concluding that the Act is not violated when phone calls placed from jail are recorded after the caller has been given notice that such will occur. Defendant impliedly provided prior consent to the recording of his calls by placing the calls with the knowledge that they were subject to recording and monitoring; indeed, we may say that Martinez and Flores also consented to the recording of the phone calls by accepting the calls after hearing the recording. The consent exception to the Act, Section 30-12-1(E)(3), applies to phone calls placed from jail when one or both parties impliedly consents, and thus Defendant's rights under the Act were not violated.