E-Z trip to divorce

TOLL RECORDS | 'It's an easy way to show you took the off-ramp to adultery'

August 12, 2007

BY CHRIS NEWMARKER

Adulterers, beware: Your cheatin' heart might be given away by your I-Pass.

I-Pass, which is part of the E-ZPass system, and other electronic toll collection systems around the country are emerging as a powerful means of proving infidelity. That's because when your spouse doesn't know where you've been, the pass does.

''E-ZPass is an E-ZPass to go directly to divorce court, because it's an easy way to show you took the off-ramp to adultery,'' said Jacalyn Barnett, a New York divorce lawyer who has used E-ZPass records a few times.

The devices communicate with antennas at toll plazas, and money is automatically deducted from the motorist's prepaid account.

Used in criminal case

Of the 12 states in the Northeast and Midwest that are part of the E-ZPass system, agencies in seven states, including Illinois, provide electronic toll information in response to court orders in criminal and civil cases, including divorces.

The Illinois tollway authority received more than 30 subpoenas in the first half of this year, with about half coming from civil cases, including divorces, according to Joelle McGinnis, an agency spokeswoman.

Electronic toll records have also proved useful in criminal cases.

They played a role in the murder case against Melanie McGuire, a New Jersey nurse convicted in April of killing her husband and tossing his cut-up remains into the Chesapeake Bay in three matching suitcases in 2004. Prosecutors used toll records to reconstruct her movements.

'It destroys credibility'

Davy Levy, a Chicago divorce lawyer, said toll records from I-Pass are useful in catching a spouse in a lie.

"You bring up the I-Pass records, and it destroys credibility," said Levy, who has used toll records two or three times for such purposes.

Some worry that using those records for purposes other than recording payments is a violation of drivers' privacy.

''When you're marketed for this new convenience, you may not realize there are these types of costs,'' said Nicole Ozer of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia turned Libertarian and privacy rights advocate, said people who want to protect their privacy shouldn't use electronic toll systems.

"People are foolish to buy into these systems without thinking, just because they want to save 20 seconds of time going through a toll booth," he said.

THE LAW

States where highway agencies will release E-ZPass toll records in response to court orders in civil cases, including divorces:

• Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia

States where agencies will release electronic toll records only in criminal cases:

• Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania

The West Virginia Parkways Authority has no policy.