Judge Tosses Lawsuit Over Eavesdropping

A federal judge has dismissed a dispatcher’s lawsuit that alleged that Carbon County (Penn.) officials listened to private conversations between dispatchers in 2005 that was captured by a logging recorder when a phone was off the hook. During the 10 hours of conversations, Mary Miller made deragatory statements about county officials, and she received a 3-day suspension when supervisors learned of the remarks. Miller claimed in her March, 2006 lawsuit that the city later fired her on a pretense, but in reality for raising questions of possible criminal conduct by county officials in recording and distributing the conversation. In the latest ruling, the judge ruled her conversations were in a public area of the comm center and Miller had no expectation of privacy. He granted a county motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Miller was a 23-year dispatcher, 10 of those with Carbon County. Links to the court documents after the break.

Download selected court documents in Acrobat (pdf) format:

• the original federal lawsuit
• the motion to dismiss documents
• the Statement of Facts filed with the court that includes lengthy transcripts of a deposition with Miller
• the judge’s final summary of the case and decision