Pennsylvania is one of the twelve “all-party-consent” states, requiring that for a recording of a conversation to be legal, all parties in the conversation must give their consent to the recording. Defendant in this case recorded calls on his cell phone without the other parties’ permission.
WEST CHESTER >> An East Goshen man who secretly recorded telephone conversations with his ex-wife, her attorney’s office, two police officers and others, and who also made profane telephone calls to a Common Pleas Court judge and officials in the Chester County Domestic Relations Office, has admitted his culpability in those crimes.
On Wednesday, William Robert Wheeler pleaded guilty to charges of wiretapping and harassment, as well as driving under the influence, before Judge Patrick Carmody, who deferred formal sentencing to allow Wheeler to apply for the county’s alternative sentencing program for repeat DUI offenders.
Attorneys on both ides of the case — Deputy District Attorney Thomas Ost-Prisco and defense attorney Gerald Schrod of Media — told Carmody that Wheeler had agreed to serve two years’ probation on the wiretapping and harassment charges, and five days in county prison followed by 25 days on electronic home confinement for the DUI. The prison term is standard for those in the county’s Intermediate Punishment Program (IPP) for second offenders in cases such as Wheeler’s.
If he is not accepted into IPP, Wheeler will have to serve 30 days in county prison.
He was also ordered to undergo anger management counseling, and to submit to a drug and alcohol evaluation.
The wiretapping incidents and the harassing telephone calls capped a period when Wheeler, 34, was apparently lashing out at people involved in an on-going custody and support dispute with his former wife, Laurie Wheeler, according to court documents. Laurie Wheeler was forced to obtain a Protection From Abuse (PFA) order against Wheeler because of his erratic and threatening behavior in December.
According to a criminal complaint filed by West Whiteland Detective Scott Pezick, he was contacted by Laurie Wheeler in January about a suspicious email that had been sent to her attorney, Evan Hambleton of the West Chester firm of Saling & Litvin. Attached to the email was a recording of a 21-minute long telephone conversation she had with Wheeler. At the end of the email, Wheeler wrote, “So now tell me that she’s not a liar.”
Laurie Wheeler told Pezick she was not aware that her conversation was being recorded, and she had not given her ex-husband permission to do so.
When Pezick examined the email from Wheeler to Hambleton, he found a notation stating that the recording came from a smart phone application that could record conversations without a party’s knowledge. That, Pezick stated, is a “clear violation of the wiretap laws in Pennsylvania.” Pezick, who had been investigating a series of incidents involving Wheeler’s behavior towards his ex-wife, a township resident, contacted Wheeler and asked him to come to the West Whiteland police station to discuss the situation.
When he did, on Feb. 4, Wheeler admitted that he had recorded the conversation with his ex-wife and sent it to Hambleton. He also said he had recorded other conversations. When Pezick asked to see the phone, Wheeler initially turned it over, but then quickly grabbed it back it back and began attempting to delete information on it. Pezick had to forcefully take the phone from Wheeler, he wrote.
An inspection of the phone by members of the Chester County Detectives’ office found a total of 46 recorded telephone calls between Dec. 23, 2014 and Feb. 4. Most were of calls Wheeler made to the Saling & Litvin office in which he spoke to staff members there. But three were of calls to Pezick himself, and one was to an officer in the Westtown-East Goshen Police Department, Sgt. Steve Wassel. None of them had been made with permission.
Wheeler also recorded calls to the county’s Family Court Master’s Unit, and to a staff member at the Domestic Relations Office, both related to the Wheelers’ on-going custody and support matters.
Wheeler was arrested and charged with 23 counts of wiretap law violations in late February.