Sheriff's Dept.: The 1,079 Privileged Jailhouse Calls We Intercepted Was Actually 34,000 Calls
from the so,-we're-getting-really-good-at-privilege-violations dept
A few months back, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department admitted it had been listening in on privileged conversations. Calls from inmates to lawyers were being swept up along with everything else by service provider Global Tel Link. This violation of state law (among other things) jeopardized dozens of prosecutions. In all, GTL’s so-called “technical error” resulted in the interception of more than 1,000 privileged calls.
The Sheriff’s Department claimed it told GTL to fix the problem, but didn’t appear to have been terribly bothered by this evidentiary windfall… some of which made its way into the hands of prosecutors. It made several disappointed noises about its provider when confronted in court, but its quasi-proactive “knock it off” — directed towards GTL — didn’t explain its lack of proactivity when it came to informing criminal defendants and their legal reps their cases may have been compromised by attorney-client privilege violations.
This was only the tip of the iceberg. The OC Register reports there’s been an exponential increase in the number of privileged calls trapped by this “technical error.” (h/t Matt Ferner)
Nearly 34,000 inmate phone calls to their attorneys were recorded, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department accessed calls 347 times, according to documents revealed in court proceedings Friday, Nov. 9.
The numbers are a significant – and, to some, alarming – spike from the 1,079 recorded calls Global Tel Link originally acknowledged in an August hearing. At that time, 58 of those recorded calls also were said to have been accessed by Sheriff’s Department or phone company investigators 87 times from January 2015 to July 2018.
Conveniently under seal until after the sheriff’s election concluded and GTL’s contract renewal was in place, the new numbers blow the old, still disturbing, numbers out of the water. This has triggered a new round of finger-pointing from the Sheriff’s Department, which again claims — despite listening in to the illegal haul — it’s all GTL’s fault.
In a release distributed late Friday, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, who plans to step down early next year, blamed GTL.
“The facts show that this is an error by GTL, an error that they are continually unable to fully disclose or explain,” Hutchens said. “We anticipate this will be exploited by some to perpetuate an anti-law enforcement narrative. We are confident that those who look at this situation objectively will recognize an error by a contractor does not constitute a conspiracy by law enforcement. To imply otherwise ignores the truth.”
Oh my. Not an “anti-law enforcement narrative.” Anything but that. The departing sheriff has decided to blame the company for the problem, but not any of her personnel who repeatedly listened to recordings they should never have had access to. And she’s proactively blaming the media by claiming reporting facts about the department’s thousands of violations is “anti-law enforcement.”
GTL, on the other hand, says the new number is bogus. It claims the older, lower number is accurate and those 1,079 calls were the only ones recorded despite the numbers called being on GTL’s “do not record” list. When asked to explain the ~33,000 call difference, GTL spokesman James Lee deferred to the court’s protective order, saying it prevented him from discussing the case. Apparently the order only covers culpatory statements but nothing halfway exonerative GTL’s front man wants to throw out there.
No one seems to know what the actual number of violations is. We’ve already seen the number of calls collected climb from 1,000 to 34,000 within the space of two months. The Sheriff’s Departments wants GTL to shoulder all the blame for the debacle, but somehow still feels comfortable signing it up for another year of possible incompetence.
Orange County taxpayers are paying department personnel to engage in attorney-client privilege violations. That’s the long and short of it. And they’re going to be paying for the eventual settlements to the eventual lawsuits. It’s to be hoped the investigation being helmed by the court will eventually reach the bottom of this debacle, but with one official walking away from the job and the department giving GTL another chance, it doesn’t seem like the embarrassing admission of multiple illegal acts by law enforcement will have much of a deterrent effect.
Filed Under: orange county, prison, privacy, privilege
Companies: global tel link
Comments on “Sheriff's Dept.: The 1,079 Privileged Jailhouse Calls We Intercepted Was Actually 34,000 Calls”
Why is it anti law enforcement?
I personally would like to see laws enforced equally to those with badges and those without. Until that day comes, I won’t listen to moronic sheriffs like this.
Re: Why is it anti law enforcement?
Don’t hold your breath.
Re: Why is it anti law enforcement?
Well, arguably "anti law enforcement" is "breaking laws" and so indeed this unfolding story can well be called an "anti law enforcement narrative" as it tells a story of doing anything but enforcing the law.
Re: Why is it anti law enforcement?
The King’s Men, being his Hands, are as above the law as the King is. Only the King can revoke their status, and no one else can demand they do anything at all.
Our entire legal system here in the US was designed to prevent that from happening. But it presumes that any sane person will act to prevent it, and that turned out to be wishful thinking.
So we have judges that create things like the doctrine of qualified immunity out of thin air despite the fact that the judicial branch cannot create laws, or the fact that an actual law that does what QI does would be instantly struck down as unconstitutional at the first challenge.
And the King’s Men are once again above the law, even though there is no King.
Re: Re: Why is it anti law enforcement?
With luck, qualified immunity will be overcome here…
No LEO should be allowed not to know about attorney-client privilege — it is clearly enough common knowledge that law enforcement should know.
out_of_the_blue’s heroes, ladies and gentlemen!
But I thought...
That merely collecting data didn’t matter until someone actually looked at/listened to it 😛
Is the implicit claim here that a call being client/attorney isn’t something that you can tell just be listening to it, so since no one told the personnel that it was privileged that there was no way for them to know? Or that the personnel assumed that GTL would never mistakenly hand over calls they shouldn’t, so they ignored any indications to the contrary? Or what?
Re: Re:
Must have been a terrorism exception, so we better listen real carefully.
Geographically challenged
Wait, I’m confused. Are we talking about Orange County, California; Orange County, Florida; Orange County, Indiana;
Orange County, New York; Orange County, North Carolina; Orange County, Texas; Orange County, Vermont; or Orange County, Virginia?
Re: Geographically challenged
Real Housewives of Orange County is actually relevant due to the tie in with who they were listening too. That should give you enough of a clue to fill in the rest.
Re: Re: Geographically challenged
Those of us who have real house and never heard of the so called group “Real Housewives” are completely clueless as about whom you speak.
You must realize this site has a worldwide audience not just , New York, or Canada one.
Re: Re: Re: Geographically challenged
He uses the term ‘Real Housewives’ to differentiate from the group he is personally more familiar with, ‘Inflatable Housewives’.
Re: Re: Geographically challenged
Clues? I don’t need no stinking clues. Who, what, where, when, how, why.
Why should I have to be a private detective to find out where the story is about?
Re: Geographically challenged
Me too, I was confused..until I followed some links from stderric’s comment; it is the orange county in California.
But don’t bet on no scandals from the one in Florida! lol
Orange county
Is the same one which had /still has a jailhouse snitch scandal that the government there does not acknowledge. The courts slapped them down hard. They are letting people go so do not have to reveal info.
Re: Orange county
Not only the same Sheriff’s Department, it seems that it’s the same assistant public defender (Scott Sanders) who helped reveal the snitch scandal digging into this one as well. It actually looks like the SD started "accidentally" listening to client/attorney recordings right after they lost their snitches.
https://voiceofoc.org/2018/10/sheriff-and-phone-company-covered-up-jail-recordings-attorney-alleges/
More than one Orange County
Techdirt covers the entirety of the US and the EU, when referring to a county can you please refer to the city and state too? After reviewing some of the sourcematerial I find out Orange County is referring to Los Angeles but there is also Orange County in Orlando, FL.
Re: More than one Orange County
I think you mean that Orlando is in Orange County, FL
Re: More than one Orange County
You might want to go back and find out again. Los Angeles is not in Orange (CA). Of course it is not in Orange (FL) either.
“does not constitute a conspiracy by law enforcement. To imply otherwise ignores the truth.”
But the implication does not ignore history…
Re: Re:
law enforcement is a conspiracy
"does not constitute a conspiracy..."
Yer Honor, just because I rode along with those bank robbers to the bank, went in with them and stood there with a gun while they robbed it, and then rode away with them, does not mean that I conspired with them to rob that bank. No sir! I was just along for the ride!
"What they did was terrible! Which is why we're re-hiring them."
Conveniently under seal until after the sheriff’s election concluded and GTL’s contract renewal was in place,
They may claim that what happened was terrible, and place all the blame on the company, but the fact that they renewed their contract with the company speaks louder than words that at best they don’t actually see what happened as a big deal.
Re: "What they did was terrible! Which is why we're re-hiring them."
Personally, the delay until after the election is a bigger deal. This should have been brought to light, and made a campaign issue.
They can all point fingers and blame whoever they want…
The problem is they knew it was happening, they benefited from it, imposed no penalties, & renewed a contract with them.
I’m pretty sure these violations of law here are way worse than a majority of the people who had their protected calls shared with the prosecution and we need to find the will to actually punish law enforcement rather than look away as we normally do.
If those charged with upholding the law can’t be held to it hasn’t that undermined the entire system?
I worked on one of these, way back when
It was Global Tel-Link, too.
The defendant’s attorneys were putting in their PIN, to flag the call as protected; but, the recordings were still written to disk, and then sent over to the District Attorney’s office. Someone at the District Attorney’s office realized what they were listening to, and reported it. That launched a small storm, where I, an I.T. guy, was brought in. They had the date of the configuration change that broke things, so they needed me write the script that found all the possibly contaminating files, which I then copied to some sort of media (I don’t recall; it was I think 20 – 25 years ago).
Anyway, my job was to hand all the found files to an attorney who was not employed by the County, and didn’t normally do any work for the County. He was hired to then listen to every recording, and review every case of a defendant recorded, looking for evidence that a District Attorney used evidence in trial that they got via the privileged conversation. If he found that evidence, the defendant would get an automatic re-trial.
The danger was that if even one defendant was recorded, and the contents of the recording were used against the defendant, (and the defendant was found guilty), then every defendant found guilty during that time would demand a retrial. So part of the plan was to review (by this disinterested third-party attorney) every case before any of the automatic retrials were announced. That way, should someone not affected by the trouble demand a retrial, the County could say "no, your case was already checked, and you were not a part of this mess." There was some aspect of a flood of retrial demands coming through that would overwhelm the system, and invoke some sort of action / sanction due to "timeliness" not being met.
So let me get this straight
I know that listening into privileged conversations between a client and their lawyer is illegal. (And I am not even american. We get a lot of american cop shows).
An yet the Employees of the Telephone Company did it anyway. The Employees of the Sheriff’s department did it anyway, and then passed this information onto prosecutors. And the only response was from the Sheriff’s department issuing some sort of “you really should’t be doing that you know Nod nod, wink, wink” statement.
Am I right it thinking that they were all working under the assumption that ‘it is only against the Law if you are not the Good Guys.”