Commonwealth v. Brinkley

362 S.W.2d 494
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976)
DecidedNovember 30, 1962
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 362 S.W.2d 494 (Commonwealth v. Brinkley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976) primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Brinkley, 362 S.W.2d 494 (Ky. 1962).

Opinions

WILLIAMS, Judge.

The appellee, Thomas Brinkley, was indicted for obtaining money under false pretenses. Trial was had in the Christian Circuit Court, the jury could not agree, and a mistrial was declared. During the course of the trial the Commonwealth proposed to offer as evidence a recording of a telephone conversation between the appellee and the prosecuting witness and a recording of a conversation between the same two while sitting in an automobile. The trial court refused to permit the introduction of those recordings as evidence.

By this appeal the Commonwealth seeks a certification of law on that issue. The recording of the telephone conversation was made by the sheriff with the aid of the [495]*495prosecuting witness by attaching a microphone to the telephone receiver located in the prosecuting witness’ home. The second recording was made by the sheriff who, with permission of the prosecuting witness, secreted himself in the trunk of an automobile where he listened to and made a recording of a conversation between appellee and prosecuting witness.

The question of admissibility of recordings made in the manner recited above has not heretofore been determined by this Court. Similar questions have received rather extensive treatment in Federal Courts, however. Of primary consideration in the Federal cases has been the interpretation of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, Title 47 U.S.C.A. § 605, which provides in part:

“ * * * no person not being authorized by the sender shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person; * * * and no person having received such intercepted communication or having become acquainted with the contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of the same or any part thereof, knowing that such information was so obtained, shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of the same or any part thereof, or use the same or any information therein contained for his own benefit or for the benefit of another not entitled thereto * * 47 U.S. C.A. Section 605.

Some of the earlier Federal decisions prohibited the use of information gained by interception of telephone communications as well as the introduction of a recording made of the conversation heard by reason of such interception. See Nardone v. United States, 302 U.S. 379, 58 S.Ct. 275, 82 L.Ed. 314, and Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 60 S.Ct. 266, 84 L.Ed. 307. It was held that Section 605 forbids any person, unless authorized by the sender, to intercept a telephone message, and further prohibits any person from divulging or publishing the message or its substance. Weiss v. United States, 308 U.S. 321, 60 S.Ct. 269, 84 L.Ed. 298, holds that evidence obtained by wiretapping of intrastate as well as interstate conversation is inadmissible even though one of the parties to the conversation consented to the interception. And in United States v. Polakoff, 2 Cir., 122 F.2d 888, a conversation was recorded from a telephone extension which one of the parties was using. The Court held evidence thus obtained was inadmissible on the ground that each person to a conversation is a sender and conversation may not be used unless consent is had of both parties. It was said in that case that the interception need not be a physical interception of the transmission of the conversation and that the means which is employed has no importance; but it is the “breach of privacy that counts.”

The more recent trend in the Federal opinions, however, has been toward a more strict construction of Section 605. In Rathbun v. United States, 355 U.S. 107, 78 S.Ct. 161, 2 L.Ed.2d 134, the Supreme Court held that a conversation heard on a telephone extension was admissible in evidence and did not violate Section 605. The Court said:

“The clear inference is that one entitled to receive a communication may use it for his own benefit or have another use it for him. The communication itself is not privileged, and one party may not force the other to secrecy merely by using a telephone.”

In the recent case of Carnes v. United States, 5 Cir., 295 F.2d 598, the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, having analyzed the several opinions which preceded it, said:

“Two major principles may be extracted from these cases: First, testimony as to a telephone conversation listened to with the consent of only one of the parties to the conversation is not inadmissible under Section 605. [496]*496Second, such testimony does not become inadmissible simply because it was recorded by an electrical or mechanical device attached to an extension phone or telephone wiring at the locality of the consenting parties.”

In Carnes, recordings of telephone conversations were obtained by means of an attachment placed on the earpiece of a telephone with the consent of the party at that end of the line. It was said that both the consenting party and the eavesdropper would be free to divulge the contents of the conversation in the court room or elsewhere ; the only function served by the recording was to preserve a permanent and accurate record of the conversation.

There is another line of cases which consider the problem as regards a. possible violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 48 S. Ct. 564, 72 L.Ed. 944, 66 A.L.R. 376, it was held that wire-tapping as such does not im volve a search or seizure prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. There wire-taps were made in the basement of a large office building and made without trespass on the defendant’s property. The cases which follow Olmstead, both in time and theory, involve eavesdropping which had not been accomplished by means of an unauthorized physical encroachment within a constitutionally protected area.

In Goldman v. United States, 316 U.S. 129, 62 S.Ct. 993, 86 L.Ed. 1322, Federal officers placed a detectaphone against an office wall and listened to conversations taking place in the office next door. The Supreme Court declared that did not violate the Fourth Amendment. In On Lee v. United States, 343 U.S. 747, 72 S.Ct. 967, 96 L.Ed. 1270, a Federal agent who was acquainted with the accused went into his laundry and engaged him in incriminating conversation. The agent had a microphone concealed on his person which fed into a receiving set operated by another agent outside the building. Testimony of the agent who was outside the building concerning-what he heard was admitted and declared to be no violation of the Fourth Amendment.

In an opinion decided in June 1962, State v. Carbone, 38 N.J. 19, 183 A.2d 1

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brock v. Commonwealth
947 S.W.2d 24 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1997)
Norton v. Commonwealth
890 S.W.2d 632 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1994)
Woods v. Commonwealth
793 S.W.2d 809 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1990)
Campbell v. Commonwealth
788 S.W.2d 260 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1990)
Greer v. Commonwealth
748 S.W.2d 674 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1988)
Commonwealth v. Prater
714 S.W.2d 492 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1986)
Thurman v. Commonwealth
611 S.W.2d 803 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1980)
Carrier v. Commonwealth
607 S.W.2d 115 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1980)
Maynard v. Commonwealth
558 S.W.2d 628 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1977)
People v. Rao
53 A.D.2d 904 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1976)
Fuller v. State
437 P.2d 772 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1968)
McGee v. Commonwealth
395 S.W.2d 378 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1965)
Commonwealth v. Brinkley
362 S.W.2d 494 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1962)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
362 S.W.2d 494, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-brinkley-kyctapphigh-1962.