The People v. Anthony Badalamenti

The majority holds, in the face of statutes that are silent on the subject, that a parent may vicariously consent for a minor child for the purposes of satisfying the one-party consent requirement contained in New York’s eavesdropping statutes. In so holding, the majority disregards settled principles of statutory interpretation and encroaches on the province of the legislature. I, therefore, dissent.

I

Defendant was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and assaulting his girlfriend’s six-year-old child, either individually or by aiding and abetting the child’s mother, after the child…