Court Opinion

ID: 9853297
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:46:00.561934+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:44.513004
License: Public Domain

MAUGHAN, Justice
(dissenting):
For the following reason, I dissent. The warrantless monitoring of the defendant by the undercover agent-participant was, under Utah law, a violation of the defendant’s *575right to privacy. Section 76-9-402 of the Utah Criminal Code states in relevant part:
(1) A person is guilty of privacy violation if, except as authorized by law, he:
* * * * * *
(c) Installs or uses outside of a private place any device for hearing, recording, amplifying, or broadcasting sounds originating in the place which would not ordinarily be audible or comprehensible outside, without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy there. [Emphasis supplied].
In section 76-9-401(2), the term “eavesdrop” is defined:
“Eavesdrop” means to overhear, record, amplify, or transmit any part of a wire or oral communication of others without the consent of at least one party thereto by means of any electronic, mechanical, or other device. [Emphasis supplied].
It cannot be the undercover agent can ever be the “one party” whose consent in a case is sufficient to make the subject conduct legal. In my view, the meaning of these two sections must be construed together. The word “others” in section 76-9-401(2) refers to the “person or persons entitled to privacy” in section 76-9-402(l)(c). The persons who are entitled to privacy are “others,” such as defendant, who had no knowledge of the undercover activities of the police. Certainly, the undercover agent himself is not a person whose right of privacy is potentially in danger of invasion, where he is an integral part of the eavesdropping scheme. Thus, the consent required by the statute was not obtained, and the statute was violated.
If we are to interpret the statute to require only the consent of the surveilling under-cover agent, we have rendered the statute a nullity. In addition, as a warrant-less search the conviction is rendered infirm.