Michael Allison – 75 Years In Prison For Videotaping Police

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[Michael Allison - 75 Years In Prison For Videotaping Police]

[Reporter] Source: LYBIO.net
75 years behind bars! A prison sentence that long is rarely handed down, and it’s usually just for murderers or rapists. But a local man faces 75 years in prison for a non-violent crime. What he is accused of doing is something many people have done, but most don’t realize it’s actually illegal.

“Let him go!”

[Reporter] Source: LYBIO.net
What you’re witnessing is now against the law in some states. This is also becoming illegal as well is this.

“Don’t taze me, bro!”

[Reporter]
These infamous scenes are being banned in more and more states.

“Sit down!”

[Reporter]
The police in these recordings are not necessarily the ones breaking the law; it’s the people recording the police. Recording audio of law enforcement without their consent is considered a crime in a dozen states including Illinois.

[Michael Allison]
This sounds like a plot on a movie. To call what I did, a crime is ridiculous.

[Reporter]
Michael Allison publically recorded law enforcement in Robinson, Illinois. Now he is charged with five felonies with up to 15 years in prison for each count. That’s a total of 75 years if convicted.

[Michael Allison]
75 years in prison, and it’s just so unbelievable.

[Reporter]
Allison could spend the rest of his life behind bars. The 42 year old is out on bail preparing to stand trial. The crime he is accused of eavesdropping.

[Michael Allison] Source: LYBIO.net
This doesn’t make any sense, and for one thing the statute as it’s written can be interpreted any which way.

[Patrick Fazio]
Illinois is one of the states applying all the eavesdropping and wiretapping statutes to new technologies like cell phones or anything else that records audio. Those laws technically make it illegal to record on duty law enforcement officials without their consent. The penalty for that crime here in Illinois is the same as rape.

[Michael Allison]
They’re actually trying to say that I have committed a crime and it’s a Class 1 felony.
[Reporter]
As that as rape.

[Michael Allison]
Yeah. It’s unbelievable.

[Chapin Ross]
And it’s extremely serious offense.

[Reporter]
Chapin Rose worked as a prosecutor in nearby Coles County a few years ago. Rose saw the problems with Illinois’ eavesdropping law as new recording technologies came along.

[Chapin Ross]
It dawned on me the time that this is going to get crazy but…

[Reporter]
Now, Michael Allison is heading to trial for recording on-duty law enforcement officials in public. Similar cases across the country have ended with the charges being reduced or dropped. Allison is being prosecuted by Crawford County States Attorney, Tom Wiseman. Wiseman refused to talk to us about this case or the eavesdropping law.

[Michael Allison]
They’re using it as written and as applied, as a shield law to protect public officials from any kind of public scrutiny.

[Chapin Ross]
As a prosecutor, I like having that evidence.

[Reporter] Source: LYBIO.net
Former prosecutor Chapin Rose says, recordings can prove or disprove accusations of wrong doing to protect citizens as well as police officers.

[Chapin Ross]
There are some just don’t like the idea of having a deal with it. I mean – the first thing you try when police chief is, I mean control the situation.

[Reporter]
Rose has since become a state representative and has tried to legalize audio recordings. He introduced a bill to try to overturn Illinois’ eavesdropping law, but the bill died in committee.

[Chapin Ross]
The laws, it is the law now. And I didn’t have any real support to change it. I just thought for the general safety of the public, police officer safety, it would be nice to have some bright line rules for the win-where of recording. Never get any support on it.

[Reporter]
The law is affecting Michael Allison, because he recorded police when they’d stopped by his mother’s house where he repaired old cars.

[Michael Allison]
I wanted to document my own words and any evidence of any kind of threats, harassment, intimidation.

[Reporter]
Officer said, his unregistered cars violated the local ordinance. They eventually fined Allison and confiscated his cars. Allison went to the Robinson Police Department with his recorder in hand. He told Chief Bill Ackman, seen here in this file video that his officers selectively and illegally enforced the ordinance. Allison eventually filed a lawsuit.

[Reporter] Source: LYBIO.net
Allison thinks that’s why he was denied a court reporter during his ordinance hearing. So Allison told the judge, he would record the hearing himself for documentation. Police later confiscated Allison’s recorder, they also arrested him on five felony eavesdropping charges for everything he had recorded.

[Michael Allison]
It’s the first time in my entire life; I’ve never been arrested or accused of a crime or anything.

[Reporter]
Chief Ackman, never returned our calls about arresting Allison on eavesdropping charges.

While we were recording video inside the court house for this report, a sheriff’s deputy came out of the court room and asked us why we were recording?

[Chief Ackman]
Does it matter?

[Reporter] Source: LYBIO.net
My response you just heard in that off camera conversation is the only audio we can play for you. Our lawyers advised us not to let you hear the deputy, because we didn’t have his consent to record him. It’s the same law that got Michael Allison arrested. It’s not just Allison, a similar situation happened to another Illinois man. This YouTube video shows Chicago police arresting Christopher Drew for selling art without a permit. Drew also had an audio recorder in his pocket, but never had the consent of police to record their comments.

[Reporter]
Now Drew is heading to trial for eavesdropping and could go to prison for what you just saw. The Illinois eavesdropping statute actually protects police, whether its dash cam videos, or even sting operations, the state law allows police officers to record citizens without their consent.

[Michael Allison]
If you turn on a recorder to record the exact same conversation that they’re recording, you’re considered a felony, and they’re protected by the statute.

[Reporter]
All these police officers who were recorded teasing, punching, or shoving unarmed citizens, (Sit down) none of them served any prison time. The California police officer who shot this man in the back and killed him, he is serving two years in prison. But Michael Allison who recorded law enforcement officials in public without their consent he faces up to 75 years in prison.

[Michael Allison]
By me going through it, is going to help other people in Illinois and possibly other states across the country that are dealing with the same situation. By going as far as what it has, it may be the opportunity to defeat the statute if they was to find me guilty on all five accounts for 75 years, I think that the headline for that would be very telling.

[Reporter] Source: LYBIO.net
One headline for that verdict might read, go to prison if you record police without their consent.

Michael Allison has a pretrial hearing for the eavesdropping charges tomorrow morning, that’s when his trial date is expected to be set.

Michael Allison – 75 Years In Prison For Videotaping Police. If you turn on a recorder to record the exact same conversation that they’re recording, you’re considered a felony, and they’re protected by the statute. Complete Full Transcript, Dialogue, Remarks, Saying, Quotes, Words And Text.