Charges against motorcyclist who recorded traffic stop are dropped

A judge in Harford County has dropped felony charges against a man who faced prison time because he posted video of his traffic stop on the ‘YouTube’ web site.

Anthony Graber was speeding on his motorcycle on I-95 back in March, when a plain-clothes state trooper pulled him over. Graber's helmet-mounted camera caught the entire incident.

When state police found the video on the internet, they filed felony wire-tapping charges against him.

The Harford County State's Attorney planned to take Graber to trial – but on Monday Circuit Court Judge Emory Plitt granted a motion from Graber's attorneys to dismiss the case.

‘The judge held that state police, or any police officer, have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their public or on the job communications,’ said David Rocah, an attorney for the ACLU of Maryland.

Rocah says his organization got involved with Graber's case because he says there have been previous incidents where officers told people to stop recording, or seized their cameras. ‘We have always thought that that conduct by police was flagrantly improper. It's much harder to document, though,’ he said.

Graber's case was different; he was being prosecuted, and the entire traffic stop was recorded by the helmet-mounted camera. Rocah says the judge's ruling means that recording police on the job -- whether it's a traffic stop in Harford County, or a teen skateboarder in the Inner Harbor, is not a crime in Maryland. ‘This seemingly minor traffic encounter has turned into something that raises very important questions about what it means to live in a democracy,’ Rocah said.

A spokesman for the state police said the trooper followed the law in the incident.
And if a trooper encounters a video-camera in the future, they will allow the recording to continue -- but still: ‘Tthe trooper, if he or she feels an illegal audio-taping has occurred, they would pursue that with the local state's attorney's office,’ said the spokesman, Greg Shipley.

Anthony Graber is 24 years old. He's a member of the Maryland Air National Guard.

The state's attorney in Harford County has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the judges ruling to drop the charges.