State Supreme Court: NJ's Wiretapping Law OK, Ramsey Murder Trial Valid

New Jersey’s State Supreme Court ruled the state’s wiretapping law is constitutional in a decision that upheld the conviction of a Florida man in the 2006 murder of a Ramsey man, NorthJersey.com reported Tuesday.

In a 2009 trial that attracted national attention, Edward Ates of Florida was convicted of the murder of his former son-in-law, Paul Duncsak, in his Ramsey home, the report said.

The trial was controversial because police in New Jersey wiretapped Ates’s phone in Florida, and intercepted calls he made to this mother in Louisiana, the report said. The defense argued that the tapping was a constitutional violation of a person’s expectation of privacy because no judge in those states had approved a warrant, it said.

The Supreme Court upheld the decision of an appeals court in 2012 that ruled that since police listened to the calls in New Jersey, it was constitutional to do, the report said.

According to the report, the wiretapping issue was just one of several unusual aspects of the case that garnered a lot of attention, including claims that Ates researched how to conduct the “perfect murder,” ordered a lock-pick kit to break into Duncsak’s home, and figured out how to build a gun silencer.

There was also no physical evidence like DNA or fingerprints left at the crime scene, the report said.

And, the defense argued that Ates, weighing 300 pounds, was too obese to have carried out the murder, the report said.