Expert: Robin Sexton - 6/16/2008

Question
I called a neighbor at 5:30 A.M. and left a nasty message threatening her ever-barking dog. Only the dog, and only that once. Mitigating factors: I'm a quadriplegic, making my threat physically impossible, plus, my wife called back immediately after my call, apologizes, and asks very nicely "to get your barking dog off my property under my window". Two days later, a local cop shows up, chews me out about the call, says "call us...take law in own hands...etc". He eventually leaves, no charges to really press, BUT, he has since rode around with said tape recording (only my call, not wife's), playing it for all the other uninvolved patrolmen, even my neighbor across the street...the mayor of our town. His intent was clearly malicious. I do hold an appointed seat on a parish (county) zoning board, and am a LA state licensed Private Investigator, so I have professional reputation to damage.
The town police chief, an elected position, will do nothing about it. Has any crime or tort taken place against me? Does LA's "Napoleonic Code" based legal system matter?

Thank you,
Bryant

Answer
Bryant,

Great the one state that doesn't use English common law !  Once you made the call and it was recorded by your neighbor obviously with you knowledge then you lost control of the tape and its contents.  Your neighbor could have sent it to Americas Funniest Video or where ever.  Same thing goes with writings etc.  I don't believe the officer is doing anything illegal, at least criminally, I beleive that he is commiting an ethical and professional breach.  Your only course of action would be to contact a private attorney and consult with them.  I strongly suspect if you could get an attorney to take this case it would be a financial hardship for you and very difficult for you to prevail.  I would try and spin it against the officer, unethical, unproffesional, what will he do if he gets something on someone else ?  He is making himself look like a fool.


Good luck


Robin