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Appeals court weighs wiretap statute and 'first complaint' hearsay in Commonwealth v. Barbosa
Summary
The court heard argument over whether a privately made three‑way phone recording required suppression under Massachusetts wiretap law and whether testimony repeated to family and police violated the first‑complaint rule in a sexual‑assault prosecution.
The Appeals Court on April 10 considered questions in Commonwealth v. Barbosa about suppression of a privately recorded telephone conversation and the admissibility of repeated complaints under the “first complaint” rule.
Attorney Carl Succhecki, representing defendant Barbosa, argued the recorded three‑way conversation — in which a complainant’s mother listened to and then recounted the call — constituted an unlawful interception under Massachusetts’s wiretap statute and thus should have been suppressed. Succhecki pressed the panel on controlling Supreme Judicial Court precedent (Santoro and subsequent decisions) that, he said, left room for…
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