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In Victory for Freedom Technology, Young Man's MP3 Player Changes the Balance of Power in a Criminal Case

The police routinely lie to get confessions, to force defendants to accept plea bargains, and to thereby get convictions. But look what happened when a defendant secretly recorded a police interrogation and then sprung that recording on a police officer in court: NEW YORK - A teenage suspect who secretly recorded his interrogation on an MP3 player has landed a veteran detective in the middle of perjury charges, authorities said Thursday.

Unaware of the recording, Detective Christopher Perino testified in April that the suspect "wasn't questioned" about a shooting in the Bronx, a criminal complaint said. But then the defense confronted the detective with a transcript it said proved he had spent more than an hour unsuccessfully trying to persuade Erik Crespo to confess — at times with vulgar tactics.

Once the transcript was revealed in court, prosecutors asked for a recess, defense attorney Mark DeMarco said. The detective was pulled from the witness stand and advised to get a lawyer. More HERE