Federal prisoner Gary Friedman filed a motion to suppress tape recordings
of certain telephone conversations that he made to his brother (an
attorney) while in county jail. The trial court denied Friedman's
suppression motion. Friedman appealed, claiming that the tape recordings of
these telephone conversations were obtained without a warrant in violation
of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (the
"Act") and the Fourth Amendment.

The appellate court held that the secret monitoring and recording of
unprivileged conversations in jails, prisons, and police stations do not
constitute an unlawful search. The Court further held that the tape
recordings of Friedman's telephone calls to his brother were made during
routine monitoring of telephones located in cells at the county jail and
was a security measure that fell within the law enforcement exception to
Title II of the Act. See: People v. Friedman, Case No. B175695, 2005 WL
1662224 (Cal.App. 2 Dist., 2005) (Not reported in Cal.Rptr.3d).

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