Note to wiretappers: Bear isn't a person

OMAHA, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Evidence on a tape recorder hidden in a teddy bear in a Nebraska couple's child custody battle can't be used, a judge says.

The judge in the case refused to hear the surreptitiously recorded conversations of ex-husband William "Duke" Lewton, ruling that Nebraska law requires at least one person in the taped conversation must consent to a recording, the Omaha World-Herald reported Wednesday.

And a teddy bear isn't a person.

The recordings were discovered after Dianna Divingnzzo reported them to a therapist who was monitoring the child custody case.

Lawton filed suit, charging his former spouse, Dianna Divingnzzo or her father planted the device in the bear. He and others unknowingly captured on tape want Divingnzzo, her dad and her former attorneys to pay for invading their privacy.

"I just can't imagine the thought of someone taking that little bear's head off and implanting a device," Lewton said Tuesday. "It's ... incomprehensible."