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Secret taping costs $100 A Phoenix man was fined $100 Thursday for secretly taping an interview with a sheriff's detective. Jackson County prosecutors said Rodney Ryan Tivis, 51, broke a little-known 1983 Oregon law when he hid a tape recorder under his jacket during the face-to-face interview in July. At the time, the detective was pursuing a sexual-assault complaint involving Tivis. Tivis was never charged with any crime in the case. "The detective got suspicious and asked Mr. Tivis if he was using a tape recorder," Deputy District Attorney Judi Harper said. ``He admitted it, but denied that he knew it was illegal." State law forbids secret tape recordings, known as "interception of communication." It does not apply to telephone conversations, as long as at least one of the participants knows a call is being recorded. In exchange for a no-contest plea Thursday, Harper reduced the charge from a Class A misdemeanor to a violation. The judge fined him $100, similar in effect to a traffic ticket. Tivis did not make a statement in court. Harper said she had never prosecuted a similar case before, and she acknowledged that the charge is rare. d"Ignorance of the law is no defense," she explained, adding, "He says he didn't know, and clearly I took that into account." The law works the same for everybody, including the police, who must get a court order for undercover body wires or phone taps. The detective was not taping the conversation with Tivis. "When the police record somebody, they always ask first," Harper noted. "It's not just polite, it's the law." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA