Woman faced 15 years for recording police

By Chris Healy

The two cases currently on appeal in the Illinois Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals (7th Cir.) are not the only ones involving the Illinois eavesdropping law. In January, Tiawanda Moore filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city of Chicago, alleging that officers violated her Fourth Amendment rights when they arrested her for recording two police officers who she said were interfering with her attempts to file a complaint.

“The law is designed to protect corruption and is not in the public interest,” said Robert Johnson, Moore’s attorney.

In July 2010, police officers responded to a call from Moore’s boyfriend regarding a domestic dispute at their house. One of the officers, in the course of interviewing Moore, groped her, according to Moore’s complaint.

Soon thereafter, Moore went to the police department to report her complaint. She alleges that after she tried to report the misconduct and was rebuffed by two officers, she was told to go into a small interview room and that she could not leave. Believing that this detention was illegal, Moore began to record the conversation with the officers on her Blackberry.

When they realized that she was recording them, the officers arrested her. She faced 15 years in prison, but in August, a jury found her not guilty.

Johnson says that the pending bill to reform the law would likely not have influenced Moore’s case, as the recording she made was not in a public place but in a closed interview room in the police station. He also said that Allison and Alvarez likely would have little impact on her case because she is no longer facing prosecution.

The potential 15-year sentence for recording police officers is extreme, Johnson says. “You could sell crack cocaine on the streets of Chicago and not be looking at that kind of time.”