What is Rep. Mark McBride Hiding?
State Rep. Mark McBride showed more than he planned on as part of his attack upon a private investigator that was hired to shadow the corrupt House member. Private Investigator Kyle Eastridge, a former OKC Police Homicide Detective and former OSBI employee is being sued by McBride after a tracking device was found attached to McBride's truck.
OSBI is investigating the "threat" to the legislator and that isn't surprising as when Eastridge left the OSBI he did so after complaining about "incompetence, laziness and fraud and internal strife within the OSBI".
McBride is claiming damages for trespassing, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress and negligence. McBride's fantasy is that the wind industry has been tracking him because he is advocating less oil and gas tax and more taxes on the wind industry.
Oklahoma County D.A. David Prater weighed in last week, calling the acts illegal and reports say that the OSBI agents are seeking a multi county grand jry subpoena for the client records of the PI to identify who hired the PI to follow and track McBride. Of course it takes a prosecutor to use the grand jury so the OSBI is merely being used as a shield by Prater.
The Oklahoma based company that provided the tracking device was left out of the lawsuit though it seems, U.S. Fleet Tracking is owned by a Whetsel crony, one that has made millions of dollars off the county by renting out tracking devices for the sheriff vehicles. While the company has been pressed for records that provided the PI's info, who rented the device to place on McBride's truck, the company itself appears to have been left out of the lawsuit. The manufacture is being sued, along with Eastridge's company and a PI named H.L. Christensen who works for Eastridge.
Will McBride prevail in court? We think not. Here is a good court decision on trespassing by PIs to gain information. That is in North Carolina but if follows Supreme Court decisions. It seems that as long as the property isn't damaged, as long as the use of the property isn't taken away, and as long as there is no intention to deprive the person of property rights there is no trespassing case. Further more, the vehicle wasn't broken into or altered, no hard wiring to the vehicle electrical system was done, the tracker was just hidden under the truck. Plus trespass requires that land posted as off limits to trespass has been entered; exactly where the tracker was installed isn't known nor is it known if McBride had posted no trespassing signs as required.
GPS tracking has no federal court decisions in place for private individuals or P.I.s. The use of GPS tracking in criminal cases by law enforcement has been ruled trespass in one case and labeled a "search" subject to regulation through the 4th Amendment, but the 4th Amendment applies only to law enforcement. The case in particular was over installing the tracker on the man's property, not in a public place, so it is still okay for the LEO to track a car as long as they do not trespass upon property to install the device. Some state juries have found that GPS tracking installed in a pubic location was used to track the vehicle on public roads and therefore there was no invasion of privacy. Were a jury to find that using a GPS installed at a public location and used to track a vehicle on public roads a violation of privacy the decision would sure to be appealed and overturned. The Supreme Court had a chance to outlaw the practice but chose not to speak to the practice other than by federal law enforcement. There are a few state laws covering GPS tracking but have plentiful exceptions including parents, co owners of the vehicle, employers, private investigators, and when used to determine fraud or stolen property. And what is a voter but an employer of a public official?
So the answer in short is that as long as the device isn't installed during a trespass of a person's private property the vehicle owner has zero expectations of privacy on a public road so a GPS tracker isn't illegal unless there is a specific state law and that law must pass legal scrutiny to avoid being struck down. The Supreme Court has hinted that short term tracking is permissible for valid reasons and public purposes while long term tracking of an individual might not be without good cause.
The invasion of privacy claims are even harder to pursue and win. You pretty much have to invade someone's actual home where they do have an expectation of privacy, eavesdrop by installing microphones and recorders, peering through someone's home windows, telephone constantly to harass, fraudulently gain access to their bank account info, or open the mail of that person. Even land around a home doesn't confer an expectation of privacy no matter how remote or even if it is posted no trespassing.
McBride of course is quite butt hurt over being tracked, showing that he most likely has something to hide as he voted plenty of times to allow cameras on the roadway and bio metrics for drivers licenses. So he is okay with tracking you and me but somehow feels entitled to be above the law for common people. If he does manage to get GPS tracking criminalized by P.I.s it would be a blow as many child abduction and child abuse cases are solved using GPS tracking along with infidelity cases, insurance fraud, and many other valid uses of GPS tracking by private investigators. Plus it is far safer than having someone following a suspect around which might end in a gun being drawn.
And we are all left wondering, what is Mark McBride hiding?
