(Jeb's) Prosecutors Looking Into Whether DeFede Violated Fla. Taping Law

[Newsjock]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000999990

By Joe Strupp

NEW YORK -- Law enforcement officials in Florida say they are reviewing whether to prosecute Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede, who was fired Wednesday after secretly taping a phone conversation with a former county commissioner who later killed himself.

A spokesman for State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida said her office is reviewing whether DeFede broke the law when he taped an interview on Wednesday with Arthur Teele Jr., minutes before Teele shot himself to death in the Herald's lobby.

... Florida is one of only about a dozen states that require both parties to consent to the taping of a phone conversation, legal experts said. The state's statute says that "all parties must consent to the recording or the disclosure of the contents of any wire, oral or electronic communication in Florida. Recording or disclosing without the consent of all parties is a felony" (unless it is a first offense, then it is a misdemeanor.)

The statute also states that "consent is not required for the taping" of someone "who does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy." That provision has caused some legal experts to question whether it could apply to a reporter interviewing a public official.

Speculation about the law began shortly after Wednesday's firing of DeFede, who lost his job during one of the most tragic and bizarre days in the paper's history. The incidents began when Teele shot himself to death in the newspaper's lobby, shortly after speaking with DeFede in a telephone interview.

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[flordehinojos]

1. interesting paragraph ....

"The statute also states that "consent is not required for the taping" of someone "who does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

in the meantime, pristine, virtuous, morally correct etc. etc. etc. herald publisher (who looks a lot like alberto gonzalez, our famous attorney general of the u.s.a, and the publisher's also pristine, virtuous, morally correct, etc., etc., etc., editor tom fiedler have decided to FIRE DeFEDE.

and probably since they will need to wash their hands of this firing the jeb bush department of Fla. inJUSTICE will find something to hang on DeFede.