Cop turned bodycam on during 'hallway deposition' with defense lawyer, sparking outraged response
Worried about whether his words would be misconstrued, a Miami Beach police officer turned on his body camera one day last month when he saw an assistant Miami-Dade public defender approaching him in a courthouse hallway for an interview—a so-called hallway deposition—regarding an imminent misdemeanor case.
But officer Julio Blanco didn’t tell attorney Audrey Salbo about the recording until she asked him to sign her notes on the case, the Miami Herald (sub. req.) reported. This sparked an outraged response by the public defender’s office.
Although the public defender’s office contended that the recording, without prior notice to Salbo, violated state law requiring two-party consent, prosecutors found no law had been broken and that Blanco wasn’t required by police department policy to notify Salbo that his camera was on.
A police union representative said there was no expectation of privacy in the courthouse hallway as the two discussed a misdemeanor case:
“It’s a public area,” vice president Kevin Millan of the fraternal order of police told the newspaper. “Any member of the public, including the media, can tape in that area.”
Nonetheless, police officers are now required to turn their bodycams off—but can request that a prosecutor be present—during the hallway depositions with public defenders at courthouses.
