University Times

A lawsuit filed in 2009 by the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union against a then-Pitt campus police officer has been settled, the ACLU announced last week. (See Sept. 3, 2009, University Times.)

Elijah Matheny, who has no Pitt affiliation, was arrested April 29, 2009, by Pitt police and charged with a felony violation of state wiretapping laws after officers said he acknowledged making an audio recording on his cell phone of the detention of a companion at the scene without the officers’ permission.

Matheny and his companion were seeking discarded household items in a Dumpster near Bouquet Gardens when campus police arrived. He was arrested and initially charged with possession of an instrument of crime, a violation of Matheny’s civil rights, the ACLU said.

The Wiretap Act forbids audio recording without the consent of all parties involved but, the ACLU argued, does not apply to recording police or government officials in the performance of their duty in public settings where they have no expectation of privacy.

The federal lawsuit, which sought unspecified damages, contended that Matheny was a victim of First Amendment retaliation, false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

Former officer Nicholas Mollo, who left the campus police force last year, was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with the Allegheny County district attorney’s office, which erroneously advised Mollo at the time of the incident that “Matheny’s actions in taping the officers in the manner described violated the Pennsylvania Wiretap Act,” the ACLU lawsuit stated.

In September 2010, the ACLU dropped the district attorney’s office as a defendant in exchange for its agreement “to issue a memo reiterating to district attorneys and local police chiefs that recording police officers performing their duties in public does not violate the Wiretap Act,” the Sept. 7 ACLU press release stated.

In March, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy Bissoon dismissed charges against Mollo, but the ACLU appealed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 3rd Circuit dismissed the appeal after the ACLU and Mollo settled the lawsuit.

According to the ACLU, “Pursuant to the settlement, the former University of Pittsburgh police officer made no admission of liability, but agreed to settle Matheny’s collective claims of damages and attorney’s fees for an amount totaling $48,500.”

Pitt officials declined to comment on the settlement.

—Peter Hart