Attorney-Client Privilege
Minnesota Officials Recorded Inmate’s Phone Calls to Lawyer
Posted Mar 13, 2008, 04:19 pm CST
By Martha Neil
A Minnesota attorney reportedly is livid after Becker County officials admitted that they have been recording his telephone calls with an incarcerated client.
Although the officials say they haven't actually listened to the attorney-client phone calls, and delete privileged conversations before passing the tapes on to prosecutors, defense lawyer Rory Durkin was furious nonetheless at what he called a "mind-boggling" violation of attorney-client privilege, reports DL-Online, a website operated by local newspapers. His client, 34-year-old Kenneth Andersen, is charged with first-degree murder, and can't adequately participate in his own defense under these circumstances, according to Durkin..
“Mr. Andersen and I have felt for a long time that our attorney-client privilege has been violated by the state,” the defense attorney told District Judge Peter Irvine at a Friday hearing. "We’ll talk to a witness and they’ll have talked to them an hour before.”
Officials say they have obtained helpful information by listing to nonprivileged conversations between Andersen and family members.
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