Chavez

A jury convicted each of the three defendants of two drug sale offenses. The trial court then granted defendants’ motion for new trial, finding their counsel ineffective for failing to find the avenue by which the evidence could have been suppressed. We conclude the trial court erred in finding counsel ineffective and therefore erred in granting defendants’ motion for new trial. In so doing we find that the restrictions on eavesdropping contained in the Cordless and Cellular Radio Telephone Privacy Act of 1990 are fully subject to the law enforcement exception codified in Penal Code section 633. Consequently, we reverse the order granting defendants a new trial and remand the matter for the trial court to reinstate the defendants’ convictions.

Background

At the end of June 1991, a confidential citizen informant (CI) contacted the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department to report that while he was listening to his radio scanner, he overheard a cordless telephone conversation concerning a narcotics transaction. The Cl explained he had a multichannel scanner which allowed him to monitor the radio portion of cordless telephone conversations. The typical cordless phone…