Mass. D.A. Says No Wiretapping Laws Broken When Cops Have No Expectation Of Privacy

by Carlos Miller
Aug. 23, 2011

Springfield Police Officer Michael Sedergren proved to have a lot of chutzpah when he filed an application for a criminal complaint against a woman who videotaped him participating in the beating of a man who was left unconscious on the side of the road.

Sedergren - who was suspended for 45 days - was alleging that his rights were violated when she recorded him from inside her home back in 2009 in the incident that left Melvin Jones III with nearly every bone in his face broken, teeth knocked out and partially blinded in one eye.

He was hoping to use Massachusetts' ambigious wiretapping law against Tyrisha Greene, which could have had her facing five years in prison.

The state law makes it a crime to secretly record somebody’s audio. And unlike most states, it does not include an expectation of privacy provision, which would explicitly allow on-duty cops to be recorded in public.

However, on Wednesday, Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni declared there must be an expectation of privacy for the law to apply. This led to Sedergen's application being thrown out.

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