The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

August 17, 2012

Man sues cop, was told to stop recordings

By Joe Pinchot Herald Staff Writer

SOUTH PYMATUNING TOWNSHIP — A South Pymatuning Township man and friend of township watchdog Kurt D. Toth sued a policeman Wednesday, accusing him of First Amendment rights violations and retaliation concerning the man’s recording of township meetings and an encounter between Toth and a policeman.

Thomas Lyons, 1820 Powers Ave., filed the suit against Sgt. Richard Christoff in U.S. District Court, Pittsburgh.

Christoff could not be reached for comment Thursday.

According to Lyons, Christoff told him Aug. 3 that the recording of public meetings was illegal, that he should not record any more meetings, and that a prosecutor urged him to charge Lyons with violating Pennsylvania’s wiretap law.

A search of Pennsylvania’s online criminal docketing system Thursday did not turn up any criminal charges filed against Lyons.

Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, said state law allows the audio and video recording of public meetings.

Agencies, such as boards of township supervisors, may adopt rules concerning the use of recording devices, such as requiring the resident to bring his or her own power source or setting a specific location of the recording equipment, Melewsky said.

Christoff also referred to the June 12 recording of an encounter between Toth and patrolman Andreu Foriska in the parking lot after a township meeting, Lyons said. Lyons had recorded the encounter on his cellular telephone.

Christoff told Lyons that the parking lot is not a public space, and the recording violated the state’s wiretapping law, Lyons said.

Melewsky said citizens have the right to record police as they perform their duties in public, although the Pennsylvania Wiretap Law prohibits recording of private conversations.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the Pennsylvania Wiretap Statute “turns on whether the speaker had a specific expectation of privacy.”

Case law has established that the law “was designed not to protect parties from any and all secretive or surreptitious recordings, but only from those recordings which violated a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy,” the ACLU said.

State and federal courts have said that a policeman “discharging his or her duties in public does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in those duties,” ACLU said. The ACLU added that people recording police cannot interfere with or compromise the duties of police, but courts generally have relied on the policeman’s judgment as to what constitutes interference.

The owner of private property sets the rules for recording there, the ACLU said.

Mercer County District Attorney Robert G. Kochems declined to comment on the allegations made about Assistant District Attorney Miles K. Karson Jr.’s advice to police.

In general, Kochems said, municipalities have a right to set reasonable limits on the recording and photographing of their meetings, and the wiretap act forbids making audio recordings of a person without their permission.

Lyons said Christoff threatened to charge him in order to prevent him from recording police activities and discourage him from testifying on Toth’s behalf in the criminal case Foriska filed against Toth for allegedly disrupting the June 12 meeting.

Text Only
Local News
  • Vote totals change Tuesday

    Mercer County completed scanning 337 absentee ballots Friday morning which have been added to Tuesday’s vote totals posted on the county’s website, said Jeff Greenburg, Mercer County’s elections director.

    May 25, 2013

  • IUs could control special ed funding for cybers, rep says

    A state lawmaker has proposed that all special education services for cyber school students be funneled through the state’s regional educational intermediate units.

    May 25, 2013

  • Prosecutor doesn’t want kids to testify in person

    A man accused of raping three young children while he babysat them was “ready to go forward” with his preliminary hearing Thursday but the prosecution put the brakes on, arguing that the children shouldn’t have to testify in the man’s presence.

    May 24, 2013

  • Hearing in fatal shooting case delayed

    More than 20 family and friends gathered Thursday outside the Farrell district court of Judge Ronald Antos to support the man accused of shooting Andrew T. Walko to death on May 13.

    May 24, 2013

  • Ex-PTO officers in court on embezzlement charges

    Two women accused of stealing more than $35,000 from the Hermitage Parent-Teacher Organization turned themselves in at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Hermitage police station.

    May 24, 2013

  • Urban decay creates hazard for schoolkids

    Sharon schools Superintendent John Sarandrea shook his head Thursday afternoon as he surveyed a partially collapsed building across the street from Musser Elementary School.

    May 24, 2013

  • Voters choose 4 newcomers, unseating 2 board members

    Sharon residents likely will be seeing four new faces at school board meetings starting in December.

    May 23, 2013

  • Plan for Speedway station gets nod from commissioners

    Alan Baldarelli asked whether he could appeal Hermitage commissioners’ decision to approve a land-development plan for a Speedway gas station and convenience store, but did not say whether he planned to appeal.

    May 23, 2013

  • PTO officers charged with theft

    Hermitage police on Wednesday charged two officials of the Hermitage Parent-Teacher Organization with stealing more than $35,000 from the organization between May 2012 and March.

    May 23, 2013

  • Memorial Day events

    Area communities announced their Memorial Day commemorations for 2013.

    May 23, 2013