MD: Police reasonably relied on landlord’s belief tenant had vanished

Defendant’s landlord reasonably believed that he had moved out of his apartment when he left the country for six weeks. Defendant had changed the lock, and the landlord had no communication with him. He found the place trashed with “lots of pot” laying around. The police reasonably relied on the landlord’s representations and apparent authority. Frobouck v. State, 212 Md. App. 262, 67 A.3d 572 (2013).

The Florida one-party consent to recording statute, FSA ch. 934, has not been much discussed in the case, but this court finds that it does not apply to recordings a child sex abuse victim made with her abuser. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy that she would not record him soliciting sex from her in their home. McDade v. State, 112 So. 3d 551 (Fla. 2d DCA June 7, 2013):

As in Inciarrano, this case involves recordings made by a victim of the very criminal acts by which she was victimized. The minor victim recorded McDade soliciting her for sexual acts, as he had done for years. And though the conversation took place in McDade’s home, it was also the victim’s home. Considering these circumstances and consistent with the analysis and holding in Inciarrano, we conclude that any expectation of privacy McDade may have had is not one which society is prepared to accept as reasonable. Indeed, society has a special interest in protecting children from sexual abuse, and exceptional treatment of sex crimes in other areas of the law reflects these societal values.