In re Marriage of Almquist
Case Date: 11/16/1998
Court: 3rd District Appellate
Docket No: 3-97-0811
No. 3--97--0811 _________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS THIRD DISTRICT A.D., 1998
_________________________________________________________________ Modified Upon Denial of Rehearing JUSTICE BRESLIN delivered the opinion of the court: _________________________________________________________________ Respondent, Frank Almquist, filed a petition for adjudication of indirect criminal contempt alleging that the petitioner, Deborah Almquist, failed to comply with the trial court's order granting him limited telephone visitation with their only child, H.A. The court granted the petition and sentenced Deborah to two years of court supervision. Because we hold that the playing of an audio tape in the background during a telephone conversation does not constitute a "conversation" as defined in the Illinois eavesdropping statute (720 ILCS 5/14--1 et seq. (West 1996)), we affirm. FACTS Frank and Deborah Almquist were married in 1989. Their daughter, H.A., was born in 1991. In 1996, Deborah filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. The trial court granted temporary custody of H.A. to Deborah. Subsequently, Frank requested and received telephone visitation with H.A. The order gave Frank the right to telephone visitation with H.A. every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evening. On May 27, 1997, Frank filed a petition for adjudication of indirect criminal contempt alleging Deborah failed to comply with the court order concerning telephone visitation. At the hearing on the petition, Frank testified he called Deborah's home at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 12, 1997, but was never allowed to speak with H.A. Instead, Deborah attempted to engage Frank in argument. Frank testified he did not argue with Deborah, but continued to ask to speak to H.A. Frank testified he called H.A. on May 15, 1997. During their conversation, a recording was played at high volume in the background. Frank recognized the recording as his "suicide tape." He explained that the tape was a recording of his own voice he had made approximately 1 |