Masthope computer seized

Recording of employees alleged

By FRITZ MAYER

LACKAWAXEN, PA — An investigation into whether the manager of Masthope Mountain Community was illegally recording employee phone calls is ongoing. On March 27, a search warrant was served on the building that houses the community offices, and a computer, a recording device and electronic files were seized.

Rocco Chierichella, the manager, was the person suspected of recording the calls. In a phone interview on April 13, he said that the Pennsylvania State Police had not yet returned the equipment, and that he had no comment as to whether he was recording employee phone calls.

Darcy Rose, a secretary for the Masthope Property Owner’s Association, sparked the search with a complaint filed on March 5. According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by trooper Frank Orlando, Rose had several reasons to believe that Chierichella was recording calls. One was that he had a machine in his office that she discovered through internet searches was a phone recording device.

She also suspected that Chierichella was recording office conversations because he knew details of a private conversation between herself and another woman, which took place when Chierichella was not present, the contents of which neither woman would have divulged to him.

In the affidavit, Orlando said he had checked the employees’ handbook and found no mention that Masthope had warned employees that their conversations or phone calls might be recorded, and that there was no information displayed in the office nor delivered to callers over the phone that calls may be recorded.

In Pennsylvania, in order for a phone call or conversation to be legally recorded in most circumstances, all parties must give consent or be notified; 12 other states have similar laws.

United States federal law permits the recording of phone calls with the consent of at least one party to the call. A majority of the states, including New York, have adopted statutes based on the federal law, and most have expanded the law to cover person-to-person conversations.