The secret recording of Dale Hausner and Sam Dieteman will likely be hard for the jury to ignore, but it almost didn’t make it into the trial at all. More than a year ago, Hausner’s defense team started trying to get the recordings thrown out, saying they were illegal because they were obtained without a search warrant.
At issue was the somewhat unconventional way that authorities went about getting approval to plant bugs in the car, apartment and telephones of the Serial Shooter suspects. Instead of going to a judge and getting a warrant, authorities went to Maricopa County’s chief prosecutor, Andrew Thomas, for what’s known as an “emergency” wiretap. Under state law, an elected prosecutor can OK the secret wiretap under dire circumstances. Once it’s approved, a judge must sign off on the already-planted bugs within two days.
Hausner’s defense team basically said the procedure was unconstitutional. The issue even became political as one of Thomas’ challengers prior to his re-election in November said the prosecutor put the entire case in jeopardy by approving this unusual procedure.
The defense ended up forcing a series of hearings on the recordings, which peaked in April with dramatic testimony from Thomas himself in which he said he approved the emergency wiretaps to “stop the killing.”
Eventually, in June, Steinle approved the wiretaps, giving jurors the change to hear the recordings.
Today, those wiretaps will be heard in public for the first time as prosecutors begin to present hours of the recording, beginning any minute now.
Photo by pool photographer. Dale Hausner, left, listens to testimony with one of his attorneys, Timothy Agan, in October.
