Long Island, New York, resident Stephanie Fuller was secretly videotaped by her landlord, who had installed a video camera in the smoke detector above her bed. Fuller’s landlord was found guilty of trespassing and was fined $1,500 and sentenced to 280 hours of community service.
a. Why was the landlord not charged with a more serious felony offense?
b. After Fuller’s experience, New York enacted a criminal unlawful surveillance statute; the statute includes language forbidding secret surveillance in places where the victim has “a reasonable expectation of privacy.” What significance attaches to that language?