Admissibility of Voice Recordings by Gary L. Wolfstone State vs. Smith, 85 Wn.2d 840 (1975). The Washington State Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Seattle Police Officer David Smith who murdered Nicholas Kyreacos on November 19, 1973. The key piece of evidence at Smith's trial was a secret tape recording which Kyreacos made when he was confronted with and shot by Officer Smith in a Seattle alley where Smith was moonlighting for a local mortgage company. Mr. Kyreacos was a suspect in an investigation assigned to Officer Smith, and Kyreacos had been lured to the place of the fatal rendezvous by an anonymous caller. Officer Smith was blissfully unaware that Kyreacos was "wired" for sound. Kyreacos had concealed the tape recorder under his clothing, and it was discovered during an autopsy in the medical examiner's office. If Officer Smith had discovered the secret recording device before he called for assistance, Smith might never have been prosecuted for his crime. The tape was played twice for the jury at Dave Smith's murder prosecution. The recording is a graphic account of the verbal exchange between Dave Smith and his victim, Kyreacos, including an account of Kyreacos begging for his life. The Court embarks upon a lengthy discussion and analysis of the Constitutional issues; the meaning of a conversation (do mere sounds constitute a "private conversation"?); the meaning of communication; and the questions of authenticity and lack of foundation as well as the res gestae exception. Coming right to the bottom line, the Court holds that the tape recording was admissible and that the conviction of Dave Smith should be upheld. The Kyreacos precedent teaches us that any secret recording of a conversation with a police officer or other person should be admissible if the police officer was committing a crime because the police officer would not, in those circumstances, have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

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