Third Circuit Overturns Verdict in Trooper Case

The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a finding by a lower court judge that a telephone conversation between an injured Pennsylvania state trooper and his supervisor was illegally recorded.In an opinion issued on Aug. 2, the appeals court ruled that U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo erred when he ruled that Lt. Willard Oliphant and Capt. Carmen Altavilla were not protected by qualified immunity from the state's wiretap law. State Trooper Mario Diana sued Oliphant and Altavilla in 2005, claiming Oliphant had surreptitiously recorded a 2003 phone conversation with him re...