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The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the conviction of a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter suspected of setting a series of fires in the Tiller Ranger District during the summer of 1998.
The appeals court ruled that Forest Service officials did nothing improper when they surreptitiously attached a radio transmitter underneath Tamera Louise Meredith's agency-issued pickup to track her whereabouts after she became a suspect.
The day after the transmitter was installed, investigators tracking the pickup from an airplane saw Meredith get out of the truck, squat down and do something with her hands and saw a fire originate from the same spot.
Meredith was sentenced by Douglas County Circuit Judge Joan Seitz to more than three years in prison following a six-week trial in 1999. Meredith, then 35, was convicted of two counts of first-degree arson and acquitted of 31 additional charges stemming from the fires.
In her appeal, Meredith contended the use of the transmitter constituted an invasion of privacy. She argued that tracking the vehicle amounted to a warrantless search and that any evidence obtained by the airborne investigators should have been excluded from the trial.
The Court of Appeals disagreed.
While the court had ruled in earlier cases that police do not have the right to invade private spaces to collect evidence -- such as the use of a dog to detect a faint odor or the use of high-powered telescopes or microphones aimed inside a residence -- it drew a distinction in this instance because all of Meredith's actions took place in the public Umpqua National Forest.
"The areas where defendant was observed included the campgrounds, logging areas, roads, and clearings of the Tiller District, on public land, within the Umpqua National Forest," Justice Walter Edmonds wrote in the 8-1 decision.
"The actions observed by the authorities from the air included defendant getting out of her employer's pickup in a 'fairly large grassy or open area,' crouching down momentarily, getting back into the vehicle, and leaving that location. Any citizen standing in or near that location or flying overhead could have observed defendant's actions."
The court ruled that Meredith had no privacy rights as to the location of her employer's vehicle operating on public land.
Justice Rives Kistler, in a dissent, wrote that government employees retain a right of privacy against electronic surveillance in the workplace. He said the evidence would have been admissible if Meredith had been charged in federal court, but he felt the admission violated the Oregon Constitution.
"Using a hidden radio transmitter to monitor a person's movement on public roads is no different from using a hidden listening device to monitor that person's conversation, Kistler wrote. "Each is a search because it permits the government to surreptitiously monitor public actions that a person reasonably understood were private."
-- You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or via e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
The appeals court ruled that Forest Service officials did nothing improper when they surreptitiously attached a radio transmitter underneath Tamera Louise Meredith's agency-issued pickup to track her whereabouts after she became a suspect.
The day after the transmitter was installed, investigators tracking the pickup from an airplane saw Meredith get out of the truck, squat down and do something with her hands and saw a fire originate from the same spot.
Meredith was sentenced by Douglas County Circuit Judge Joan Seitz to more than three years in prison following a six-week trial in 1999. Meredith, then 35, was convicted of two counts of first-degree arson and acquitted of 31 additional charges stemming from the fires.
In her appeal, Meredith contended the use of the transmitter constituted an invasion of privacy. She argued that tracking the vehicle amounted to a warrantless search and that any evidence obtained by the airborne investigators should have been excluded from the trial.
The Court of Appeals disagreed.
While the court had ruled in earlier cases that police do not have the right to invade private spaces to collect evidence -- such as the use of a dog to detect a faint odor or the use of high-powered telescopes or microphones aimed inside a residence -- it drew a distinction in this instance because all of Meredith's actions took place in the public Umpqua National Forest.
"The areas where defendant was observed included the campgrounds, logging areas, roads, and clearings of the Tiller District, on public land, within the Umpqua National Forest," Justice Walter Edmonds wrote in the 8-1 decision.
"The actions observed by the authorities from the air included defendant getting out of her employer's pickup in a 'fairly large grassy or open area,' crouching down momentarily, getting back into the vehicle, and leaving that location. Any citizen standing in or near that location or flying overhead could have observed defendant's actions."
The court ruled that Meredith had no privacy rights as to the location of her employer's vehicle operating on public land.
Justice Rives Kistler, in a dissent, wrote that government employees retain a right of privacy against electronic surveillance in the workplace. He said the evidence would have been admissible if Meredith had been charged in federal court, but he felt the admission violated the Oregon Constitution.
"Using a hidden radio transmitter to monitor a person's movement on public roads is no different from using a hidden listening device to monitor that person's conversation, Kistler wrote. "Each is a search because it permits the government to surreptitiously monitor public actions that a person reasonably understood were private."
-- You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or via e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.
