A federal judge has dismissed claims that a prominent Philadelphia lawyer brought against Amazon and Roc Nation over an allegedly surreptitiously recorded conversation where the attorney appeared to make critical comments about his client, who is the judge at the center of rapper Meek Mill's probation violation case.

U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Wednesday dismissed attorney A. Charles Peruto Jr.'s actions alleging violations of the Pennsylvania and Federal Wiretap Acts and seeking to have the audio files returned. The rulings in Peruto v. Roc Nation dismissed the case at the summary judgment phase.

Peruto had sued Amazon, Roc Nation and others in September over claims that they recorded him without his knowledge during the filming of a documentary produced by Amazon about hip-hop star Robert Rihmeek Williams, better known as Meek Mill, and the criminal justice system. According to Peruto, although he agreed to take part in the documentary, he made the statements at issue when he believed he was off the record and the camera was not recording.

McHugh, however, relying heavily on the authenticated audio recordings in making his ruling, said Peruto failed to indicate that his comments were meant to be off the record, and further determined that the attorney had no reasonable expectation of privacy to support his lawsuit.

“Mr. Peruto spoke freely in front of a room full of individuals, some of whom he did not know, in the presence of recording equipment,” McHugh said. “Peruto knew the recording devices had just been recording, yet he began disparaging his client before he even had time to fully remove his microphone.”

Peruto's attorney, Jim Beasley Jr. of The Beasley Firm, said he has already filed an appeal in the case.

“What happened here was the interviewers said no more questions, the forensic testing revealed they powered off everything except Chuck's mike, and they turned the camera to the wall,” Beasley said. “Respectfully, the judge made a lot of findings of fact, and precluded us from getting any facts about the mindset of these people.”

According to McHugh, Peruto sat for interviews for a documentary about Williams, focusing, at least in part, on the rapper's experience with Judge Genece Brinkley of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, whose decision to imprison Williams in late 2017 for probation violations sparked a national outcry. Brinkley had hired Peruto in connection with the controversy.

According to McHugh, after the interview was over, Peruto thanked the defendants and gestured to remove his mic. Peruto then said, “Let me tell you something,” and then the camera turned off, McHugh said. The audio, however, continued to record, according to McHugh, and Peruto then said, “That was hard to do because defending this judge is now becoming—why doesn't she just grant this fucking thing?”

The audio was eventually leaked to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Regarding the replevin claim seeking to have the audio files returned to Peruto, McHugh said Pennsylvania law does not recognize audio files as the type of tangible property subject to a replevin action and that Peruto has no property interest in the words themselves.

“Claiming exclusive possession of words knowingly communicated to others presents an inherent contraction,” McHugh said.

McHugh, however, did not foreclose future litigation stemming from the recordings of Peruto.

“It should be noted that my ruling here can only address the claims that exist at this point,” he said. “It remains to be seen how the documentary itself presents Mr. Peruto and whether its portrayal of him gives rise to any other claims.”

Ballard Spahr attorney Michael Berry, who is representing Amazon, and Joshua Peles of Reed Smith, who is representing Roc Nation, both did not return a call seeking comment.