Court Opinion

ID: 9470427
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:05:52.639537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:53.714135
License: Public Domain

HATCHETT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the majority decision in this case. Although no expectation of privacy exists in a conversation lawfully overheard by the government, the conversation in this case was not lawfully overheard. The majority states that “the fourth amendment did not protect Yonn from the risk that Dozier would disclose the contents of the discussions.” at 1347. True, but this sentence envisions a situation inconsistent with the facts in this case. Here, the issue turns, not on whether Dozier could lawfully disclose information to government agents, but rather, whether government agents could lawfully invade Yonn’s hotel room, without court order or warrant, in order to record conversations in that room. This shift in facts makes all the difference. As the First Circuit pointed out in United States v. Padilla, 520 F.2d 526 (1st Cir.1975), the government erred because it did not first obtain judicial authorization to intercept the oral communications in the hotel room consistent with 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 2516 and 2518. 520 F.2d at 527. If the government had obtained judicial authorization for its actions, any *1350oral evidence obtained as a result of its investigation would have been lawfully obtained, and consequently could be entered into evidence. Alternatively, the government could have allowed Dozier to wear a body microphone on his person, see United States v. White, 401 U.S. 745, 752, 91 S.Ct. 1122, 1126, 28 L.Ed.2d 453 (1971), in order to avoid the requirement of judicial authorization for its interception operation. The government declined to take either route. Although the practicalities are the same, the legal principles are different.
Further, in this instance Dozier had no authority, in any event, to give his consent for the interception of conversations in someone else’s hotel room where he did not live in the room and exercised no control over it. See Stoner v. State of California, 376 U.S. 483, 84 S.Ct. 889, 11 L.Ed.2d 856, rehearing denied, 377 U.S. 940, 84 S.Ct. 1342, 12 L.Ed.2d 303 (1964) (search of hotel room conducted without consent of absent guest and without search warrant was unlawful even though hotel clerk consented to the search of the room). Nor did Yonn impliedly consent to a bugging device being placed in his room by allowing Dozier to reserve the room for him. Although Dozier obtained a reservation for Yonn, the room was reserved in Yonn’s name. Yonn maintained an expectation of privacy, not that his conversations with Dozier would remain confidential, but that his hotel room would remain unbugged. The situation which the majority condones has dangerous implications; it is analogous to a secretary making hotel reservations for her employer’s business trip, then giving the government her consent to bug the room. If the secretary entered the employer’s room for a short time, would the initial intrusion become lawful?
The government attempts to dismiss the potential harm inherent in the above situation by arguing that the room microphone was turned on only when Dozier was present, so that only those conversations would be recorded. This does not cure the fourth amendment violation. The violation occurred with the placing of the unauthorized device. For these reasons, I believe the evidence obtained by the government through the placing of a microphone within Yonn’s hotel room to be illegally obtained, and should have been suppressed.