Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Extortion/Phone Recording

#1: You can commit extortion without money or other tangible objects changing hands. MCL 750.213 says that extortion occurs when you MALICIOUSLY THREATEN TO (a) accuse someone of a crime or offense, (b) injure a person, (c) injure the property of a person, or (d) injure a parent/spouse/child of a person ... with the INTENT to extort money or any pecuniary advantage whatever, or to compel the person so threatened to do or refrain from doing an act against his/her will. This is a serious felony. It carries up to 20 years in in prison, or a $10,000 fine.

#2: Michigan is a "one-party" state when it comes to recording private conversations. This means that only one party to a conversation needs to know about and approve of the recording ... not all participants in the conversation. So, you can record "your" phone calls and conversations on your own, and not tell the other person(s). One thing you cannot do legally in Michigan is to set up a system that simply records all conversations on a certain phone line, whether or not you are participating, because you will wind up recording conversations that you are not involved in AND where none of the participants know about it or consent. This is non-participant monitoring ... essentially illegal wiretapping. I do not know if Minnesota is a "one-party" or "two-party" state, but if at least one party one the line is in Michigan, then Michigan's laws would apply.

As for the voicemails, what is "he recording" regarding YOUR voicemails? When you leave a voicemail message, you are voluntarily creating a recording of your voice and the contents thereof. I see nothing illegal about him keeping the recording as 'evidence', or even letting others listen to it. YOU left the message!