By: John R. Ellement
Lawyers representing former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez in his upcoming criminal trial launched an effort Wednesday to find out who gained access to recordings of his telephone conversations while he was being held in jail in 2014.
His attorneys also filed paperwork in Suffolk Superior Court asking a judge to bar any evidence prosecutors obtained from a cellphone Hernandez gave to a former lawyer, who gave it to law enforcement after prosecutors obtained a search warrant.
Hernandez is facing trial next year for the 2012 shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Boston’s South End. He is also charged with witness intimidation for allegedly shooting an associate, Alexander Bradley, in 2013 in Florida because he feared Bradley would implicate him in the double murder.
The former tight end is currently serving a life-without-parole sentence for a different murder, the June 2013 murder of Odin L. Lloyd, who was shot to death in a North Attleborough industrial park.
While Hernandez was being held at the Suffolk County jail in 2014 prior to his trial in the Lloyd case, recordings of Hernandez’s telephone conversations, which were maintained by Securus Technologies Inc., were accessed by somebody, Suffolk Sheriff Steven Tompkins’s office has acknowledged.
Hernandez’s lawyers — who also filed a civil lawsuit against Securus in federal court in Boston this week — are now demanding any information on the recordings that Suffolk prosecutors might have in their files.
Tompkins’s office has said they did not notify prosecutors about the breach. The office has also said department policy bans recordings of conversations between lawyers and clients. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office has also said Tompkins’s office did not notify prosecutors.
Hernandez and his legal team have battled with prosecutors over access to the cellphone for the past several months. Earlier this year, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that prosecutors can have access to the phone.
But Hernandez’s lawyers contend prosecutors learned about the existence of the phone from one of Hernandez’s former attorneys in violation of the attorney/client privilege.
Tompkins’s office has said they did not notify prosecutors about the breach. The office has also said department policy bans recordings of conversations between lawyers and clients. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office has also said Tompkins’s office did not notify prosecutors.
Hernandez and his legal team have battled with prosecutors over access to the cellphone for the past several months. Earlier this year, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that prosecutors can have access to the phone.
But Hernandez’s lawyers contend prosecutors learned about the existence of the phone from one of Hernandez’s former attorneys in violation of the attorney/client privilege.
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