Tracking your Estranged Wife or Significant Other with a GPS- Not a Good Idea

September 21st, 2016 by JBWK

 

Submitted by Attorney Herbert V. Kelly, Jr.

A Father who placed an electronic tracking device in the car owned and operated by his child’s mother, resulted in a misdemeanor conviction for violation of Virginia Code §18.2-60.5. This statue generally prohibits placing or installing an electronic tracking device “through intentionally deceptive means”, in order to track a person’s location.  The statute makes the offense a class three misdemeanor.  There are exemptions for law enforcement, fleet vehicle owners, and private detectives. The defense raised by the father was that he was tracking his child not the child’s mother. The judge found that even if the father’s ultimate goal was to prevent the mother from removing the child from the jurisdiction, he used an illegal means to achieve that goal.

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