Evidence
Waterfront Eatery With Pager Problem Hires Diver; Was He a Police Agent?
Posted Feb 25, 2009, 12:58 pm CST
By Martha Neil
When Chris Shake ran short of the pagers he gave to customers who wanted to stroll outside while awaiting a table at his Old Fisherman's Grotto eatery, he suspected a competitor of taking both his customers and the seating devices.
So the can-do Monterey, Calif., restaurateur set out to prove his suspicions, hiring a diver to search the bay under nearby Domenico's on the Wharf. The diver reportedly found 10 of Shake's pagers there, which led to a misdemeanor petty theft charge against Sam Mercurio, a co-owner of Domenico's, reports the Monterey County Herald. An undercover police officer also posed as a Domenico's customer in an effort to obtain additional evidence.
Now a lawyer for Mercurio, who has pleaded not guilty, is seeking to have the pager evidence thrown out, contending that the diver was a police agent. The attorney also argues that Mercurio had an expectation of privacy, since the restaurant is legally responsible, under its lease, for maintaining that portion of the wharf and a city ordinance prohibits diving there.
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