Commonwealth v. Henlen

533 A.2d 457, 368 Pa. Super. 1, 1987 Pa. Super. LEXIS 9560
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 4, 1987
DocketNo. 1732
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 533 A.2d 457 (Commonwealth v. Henlen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Henlen, 533 A.2d 457, 368 Pa. Super. 1, 1987 Pa. Super. LEXIS 9560 (Pa. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

ROWLEY, Judge:

This is an appeal by the Commonwealth from an order granting appellee, Thomas Henlen’s, petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus and dismissing the charges against him for a violation of the Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, 18 Pa.C.S. § 5703. We reverse.

The facts have been stipulated to be as follows:

1. Sometime prior to June 19, 1986, a theft of an inmate’s personal property occurred at the Mercer County Jail and Trooper James D. Dibler of the Pennsylvania State Police was ordered to investigate the same on March 26, 1986.
[3]*32. On or about June 19, 1986, Trooper Dibler made arrangements to interview Mr. Henlen concerning the theft.
3. Mr. Henlen was a suspect in the theft case.
4. On June 19, 1986, Mr. Henlen was interviewed by Trooper Dibler at the Mercer County Jail for thirty to forty-five minutes, concerning the theft case.
5. Officer Stonebraker, another guard at the Jail, was present at Mr. Henlen’s request for eight to ten minutes.
6. Trooper Dibler did not know he was being taped, did not see the tape recorder and would not have agreed to be taped if he had been asked.
7. Trooper Dibler made some rough notes of the interview and would have made a more complete report of the interview if he would have obtained more information he believed that he could use against Mr. Henlen in court.
8. On August 1, 1986, Mr. Henlen turned the tape over to Sgt. Conley of the Internal Affairs Division of the Pennsylvania State Police as part of a complaint by him against Trooper Dibler for harassment.
9. On August 1, 1986, Mr. Henlen told Sgt. Conley he was unaware of the violation he allegedly committed and had tape recorded the conversation for his own protection.

The Commonwealth’s only issue on appeal is whether appellee’s recording of his conversation with Trooper Dibler without the knowledge or consent of Trooper Dibler was a violation of the Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act. The Commonwealth argues that the police officer’s expectation that the conversation would not be intercepted was the same as any other individual’s expectation and therefore the recording of the conversation was a violation of the Act. The trial court held, and the appellee argues, that because the police officer was interviewing the appellee with regard to a criminal investigation, and himself took notes of the conversation, the police officer should have reasonably expected that the conversation would not be private but would be repeated to other police officers, [4]*4law enforcement officials, and perhaps in court. For this reason, appellee contends that the conversation was not an “oral communication” protected by the Act. Appellee also argues that a police officer acting in his official capacity waives any protection which the Act might otherwise afford to him. Finally, appellee argues that it is a violation of his due process and equal protection rights “to try him on a felony criminal charge when a civil burden of proof may not be made out under the same statute.”

The trial court and appellee rely primarily on Gunderman v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 95 Pa.Cmwlth. 479, 505 A.2d 1112 (1986) to support the position that the police officer had no reasonable expectation of privacy and that, therefore, the conversation was not protected under the Act. In Gunderman, the claimant secretly tape-recorded his unemployment compensation hearing. The Court held that because a record of the testimony at such hearings was always made as a matter of course so that a record could be preserved for review by the Board and courts, there was no legitimate expectation of privacy. Appellee also relies on Commonwealth v. Gullett, 459 Pa. 431, 329 A.2d 513 (1974) for the rule that where the circumstances suggest that permission has been given that the matter be communicated elsewhere, the Act does not apply. Neither of these cases is applicable here.

Gunderman is distinguishable from the instant case because here no official recording of the conversation was made, nor was one expected to be made. The police officer had no expectation that his words would be recorded verbatim and accurately. Although the police officer may have realized that his questions to appellee and appellee’s responses may have to be revealed to other people, or could be divulged by appellee, the police officer had no reason to expect that the entire conversation, which may have included statements unrelated to the investigation, would be recorded.

[5]*5Furthermore, appellee’s contention that the police officer did not have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the interview with appellee, and therefore is not entitled to the protection afforded by the Act, misconstrues the Act. The Act does not provide that when one does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, the Act does not apply and any person is then free to record the conversation. Rather the Act with only a few, specifically enumerated exceptions, protects all communications which fall within its definition of “oral communication,” The Act defines “oral communication” as:

Any oral communications uttered by a person possessing an expectation that such communication is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying such expectation. (Emphasis added.)

18 Pa.C.S. § 5702. The Act further defines “intercept” as:

Aural acquisition of the contents of any wire or oral communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical or other device.

Id. Thus the expectation which must be justified under the definition of “oral communication” is the expectation that one’s communication will not be recorded by any electronic, mechanical or other device. The fact that one may have reason to believe that he himself will have to reveal what transpired in a conversation, or that the other party to the conversation may relate to third parties the contents of a communication, does not necessarily mean that a party to the communication should have expected that the communication would be recorded, even though the party may not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the communication.

It is the distinction between “reasonable expectation of privacy” and “expectation that such communication is not subject to interception,” which emphasizes the inapplicability of Gunderman to the facts before us. Because the hearing which was surreptitiously recorded in Gunderman was recorded officially, with the knowledge of the participants to the hearing, there was no expectation that the [6]*6statements made at the hearing would not in fact be “aurally acquired through the use of an electronic, mechanical or other device.” Hence, the oral statements made at the hearing were not protected by the Wiretap Act.

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Related

Commonwealth v. McIvor
670 A.2d 697 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1996)
Commonwealth v. Louden
638 A.2d 953 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1994)
Commonwealth v. Henlen
564 A.2d 905 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
533 A.2d 457, 368 Pa. Super. 1, 1987 Pa. Super. LEXIS 9560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-henlen-pasuperct-1987.