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Bunnell v. Department of Corrections6/22/1998
CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION *
COPY
(Super. Ct. No. 95AS02216)
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Sacramento County. Joe S. Gray, Judge. Affirmed.
In this civil action seeking damages for allegedly unlawful wiretapping under federal and state statutes (18 U.S.C. § 2510 et seq.; Penal Code, § 630 et seq.), plaintiff Michael D. Bunnell appeals from summary judgment entered in favor of defendant California Department of Corrections (CDC). Plaintiff contends the trial court incorrectly concluded that CDC, as a state governmental entity, was not subject to liability under the federal or state statutes. We shall conclude we need not address this issue, because plaintiff's complaint is barred by the applicable federal and state statutes of limitations, which CDC presented as an alternate ground for summary judgment. In the unpublished portion of this opinion, we shall discuss why the statute of limitations bars plaintiff's state law claim; in the published portion, we shall explain why plaintiff's federal claim is also barred by the statute of limitations. We shall therefore affirm the judgment.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
In 1991 plaintiff was employed by CDC as chief deputy warden at Deuel Vocational Institution (DVI). In April 1991, another CDC employee, correctional officer Wayne Green (who is not a party to this lawsuit), was investigating criminal activity in the prison in his capacity as a member of DVI's security squad. Green placed a wiretap on a captain's clerk's telephone within a DVI office. The parties dispute whether Green's supervisor knew of Green's action when it occurred. The monitoring device remained attached to the telephone until March 1992 and recorded telephone conversations, including those of plaintiff.
On April 8, 1992, Department of Justice Special Agent Albert Fox interviewed plaintiff and played for him tape recordings made from the wiretap on the captain's clerk's telephone.
Based on information derived from the wiretap, CDC sought to terminate plaintiff's employment for misconduct.
In March 18, 1993, a criminal information against plaintiff was filed, based on information derived from the wiretap, alleging (1) misappropriation of public monies to the use of a prison inmate for cosmetic dentistry, (2) removal of public documents from an inmate's file before a Parole Board hearing, and (3) conspiracy to violate the liberty of others arising from administrative segregation of three inmates following a fight between other inmates. In the criminal proceeding, Bunnell filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained through the wiretap, on the grounds that the interception of telephone communications violated the federal wiretapping statutes (18 U.S.C. § 2510 et seq.) and the California wiretapping statutes (Pen. Code, § 631 et seq.). The trial court denied the suppression motion, and Bunnell sought review in this court by filing a petition for writ of mandate.
On December 15, 1993, while his writ petition was pending in this court, Bunnell filed a civil lawsuit against CDC and others seeking damages for an unlawful wiretap under federal and state wiretap statutes. (That lawsuit was later dismissed by plaintiff.)
In January 1994, upon our review of the trial court's denial of the suppression motion in the criminal case, this court issued a writ of mandate, holding suppression of the evidence obtained by the wiretap was compelled by the federal wiretapping statutes, since the trial court erred in determining that the wiretap was permissible as falling within the exemption under the federal statute for conduct within the ordin
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