Lawyers accused of DUI setup of opposing trial counsel fight to suppress video of paralegal
At the center of an ongoing legal ethics case against three Florida lawyers accused of playing a role in setting up opposing counsel in a hard-fought defamation trial for a drunken-driving arrest is a paralegal who worked for the trio’s law firm.
As the Florida bar’s disciplinary case against attorneys Stephen Diaco, Robert Adams and Adam Filthaut proceeds toward trial, a cellphone videotape of the paralegal, Melissa Personius, is center stage, the Tampa Tribune reports.
According to court filings, the video shows Personius admitting, after she returned from an evening of drinking with the opposing lawyer, C. Philip Campbell Jr., at a Tampa steakhouse, that she and two of the three Adams & Diaco lawyers now facing bar disciplinary charges did in fact arrange for Campbell’s arrest by Tampa police, the newspaper reports.
However, under Florida law, both parties must consent for a video shot in a private setting to be legal. The paralegal’s estranged husband, Kristopher Personius, took the video and says he held the phone up “right there in her sight” as he was filming. But he didn’t expressly ask his spouse for permission to do so and is “not positive” she knew it was recording.
Attorney Greg Kehoe is representing the three Adams & Diaco attorneys in the ethics case. In court filings, he says the video was filmed illegally and seeks not only to suppress it as evidence but to disqualify the bar’s attorneys because they are allegedly using the video in developing their strategy.
A civil rights investigation by the FBI is also ongoing.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Bar probes 3 lawyers accused of setting up opposing counsel for mid-trial DUI arrest”
ABAJournal.com: “DUI case dropped against lawyer who claimed he was set up, mid-trial, by opposing counsel”
ABAJournal.com: “Despite witnesses taking the Fifth, judge OKs trial of 3 lawyers accused of DUI setup”
