9th Cir.;
15-15460

The court of appeals affirmed a judgment. The court held that county law enforcement officials' good faith actions protected them from a damage judgment for their interception of personal conversations in violation of federal law.

As part of an ongoing criminal investigation, Maricopa County Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Brockel executed an application for wiretaps of several telephone lines. Before making the application, Brockel personally reviewed a lengthy supporting affidavit. Maricopa County Attorney William Montgomery, who authorized the application, did not review the supporting affidavit. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge signed orders authorizing the requested wiretaps. Maricopa County officers subsequently intercepted and recorded eight conversations between Manuela Villa and her daughter over a phone line registered to a third party. Upon learning that her conversations had been intercepted, Villa filed a putative class action against Montgomery, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and Maricopa County, alleging that portions of the Arizona wiretapping statute, as well as the county's practices adopted in reliance on the statute, were preempted by and violated Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, at 18 U.S.C. §2510 et seq. Villa also alleged that her Fourth Amendment rights had been violated.