Ignorance of the law is not a defense, as two Illinois citizens have recently discovered. Christopher Drew and Tiawanda Moore are both facing up to fifteen years in prison for crimes that they did not realize they were committing. The New York Times recently highlighted the harsh eavesdropping statutes in Illinois by using these two citizens as examples.
Christopher Drew was arrested for selling art without a permit in downtown Chicago, which he intended to do in order to protest the city ordinance requiring permits. However, he now faces Class 1 felony charges, due simply to the presence of a digital video recorder in one of his bags during the arrest. He explains the encounter, in which police officers discovered that the recording device was on and had been recording the entire incident, in this video. The Illinois Eavesdropping Act contains various levels of offenses. Drew was charged with a Class 1 offense, which prohibits audio-recording of a law enforcement officer, state’s attorney, assistant state’s attorney, attorney general, assistant attorney general or judge in the performance of his or her duties.
Tiawanda Moore filed a sexual harassment claim against a police officer. Naturally, she was already feeling leery of law enforcement and did not trust the Internal Affairs investigators, so she decided to record her meeting with them “to show how they’re not helping her.” She used her Blackberry, and was subsequently arrested under the Illinois Eavesdropping Act once the recording was discovered by the investigators.
While the penalty for recording public officials is the harshest, other offenses under the Act could easily affect many Illinois citizens without knowledge of the law. Audio-recording a private or public conversation with a civilian, without the consent of all parties to the conversation, is a Class 4 felony punishable by up to three years in prison. The ACLU filed a lawsuit to challenge the Illinois Eavesdropping Act in federal court, but it was dismissed for the second time on January 10th.
These harsh penalties present challenges to modern technology. Most cell phones now have audio and/or video recording capabilities, and many people also utilize digital video recorders. In fact, uploading videos to YouTube, Facebook, or blogging sites is common, and people are enticed to share their experiences with others. However, quickly turning on a video recording device to capture the moment could put Illinois citizens in prison. In this era, where legitimate news organizations like CNN or local newspapers encourage citizens to become reporters by taping and publishing “eyewitness news,” Illinois’ eavesdropping statutes could put these citizen-reporters in prison.
I’ll amazed at the bias shown by Chicago Press in reporting cases about Illinois Eavesdropping Law. In Cook County there were three Eavesdropping Cases: People v. Moore, People v. Drew and People v. Melongo. In the first case, the jury acquitted the defendant. In the last two cases, there are pending motions to dismiss. However, the Chicago Press has completely ignored the Melongo’s case and focused all its attention on the Drew’s case. Melongo recorded conversations with Pamela Taylor for an allegedly altered court transcript. Mrs. Taylor is a public official working at the criminal located at 2600th California Ave. Melongo has spent 22 months in jail for this offense, is currently out on house arrest, yet the local press in all of its many articles, has completely ignored the Melongo’s case. Why? Maybe there’s a great bias in the press against police to the extend that it has turned a blind eye on the integrity of reporting the news. If it wants to report news related to the Eavesdropping Law, then by all means, it should report ALL of it; I’m extremely shocked at what’s happening here.
Melongo’s Motion to dismiss: http://www.scribd.com/doc/81096353/Amended-Motion-To-Dismiss-Illinois-Eavesdropping-Case
State response’s to Melongo’s motion: http://www.scribd.com/doc/81750317/State-Response-Amended-Motion
Melongo’s arguments on her motion to dismiss will be heard on March 13th, 2012. The presiding judge is Goebel.
That’s what mean being impartial. Tell the ENTIRE story. Not just a snippet of it.
Melongo’s Eavesdropping Case Dismissed: Another Blow To Illinois Eavesdropping Law
Upon the defendant’s motion[1], Judge Goebel filed his written order[2] dismissing Melongo’s eavesdropping case on June 19th, 2012. The state hasn’t decided if it will appeal.
[1] http://www.illinoiscorruption.net/documents/MotionRequestAmendedOrder.pdf
[2] http://tinyurl.com/cqq6ahg
Melongo’s motion : http://tinyurl.com/6nqv2se
State’s response: http://tinyurl.com/73fwecf