Panel also finds the jail phone system was insufficiently supervised by sheriff's department
An Orange County grand jury investigation has found no evidence that criminal cases were affected by the illegal recording of nearly 34,000 attorney-client telephone calls from the Orange County Jail.
The grand jury findings released Friday also found no wrongdoing on the part of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office or Sheriff’s Department in the handling of the recorded calls, which violated the most sacred of legal tenets.
The panel, however, concluded the Sheriff’s Department was insufficiently trained to oversee the phone system provided by independent contractor GTL of Reston, Virginia.
“Throughout its investigation, the Grand Jury found that all involved parties handled this situation professionally, with transparency and with good intentions,” said the report, titled “Your Call May be Recorded.”
“This is a complicated issue and, to the OCSD’s and the county’s credit, they are tackling it head-on and may easily become leaders in the state and the United States in finding the most desirable solution for providing legally privileged communications to inmates.”
Authorities first learned in June 2018 that, for the previous three years, the phone system had been recording calls between inmates and their attorneys because of “human error.” In all, 4,356 conversations between inmates and attorneys were recorded for various reasons. One of the main reasons is that the lawyers’ phone numbers were mistakenly left off a “do-not-record” list. Other attorneys didn’t know about the list and, hence, never submitted their numbers.
Another 29,456 unanswered calls were recorded, said GTL spokesman James Lee.
The Public Defender’s Office filed a court case in an attempt to keep the recordings out of the hands of prosecutors and notify the affected inmates and their counsel. Eight recorded conversations had already been given to the District Attorney’s Office.
However, the grand jury investigation found no evidence that any defendant’s right to a fair trial had been affected.
Sheriff Don Barnes welcomed the findings and the recommendations to enhance his oversight of the phone system.
“I’m heartened the report reinforced there was no malicious wrongdoing or evidence that any defendant’s right to a fair trial were adversely affected by GTL’s error,” Barnes said in a statement. “As the report notes, the department has handled this incident responsibly, professionally. We continue to take steps necessary to ensure that the inmate phone system both helps us manage jail security and protects constitutional rights.”
He added, “OCSD has taken multiple steps to ensure attorney-client privileged phone calls will not be recorded or listened to.”
One gaping hole in the investigation was the grand jury’s failure to hear from Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, who was among those who complained the loudest about the telephone recordings and did the most research on the topic. Sanders is known for unraveling the use by Orange County prosecutors and police of jailhouse informants to get confessions from inmates, many times in violation of their civil rights.
“No surprises here. The grand jury gushes about a sheriff’s department that concealed illegally listening to attorney-client calls for more the three years, actually saying the department may ‘easily become’ a leader … for dealing with these issues,” Sanders said.
“It’s true. Corrupt agencies throughout the country will certainly now look to the OCSD for leadership lessons on how to brazenly break the law and still be branded heroic.”
The grand jury did not respond to a request for comment.
May 31, 2019
The Orange County Register
By Tony Saavedra
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