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Federal prosecutor admits she listened to recordings of attorney-client conversations, filing says

A federal prosecutor is no longer employed by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Kansas City, Kansas, after admitting to her supervisor that she had listened to recorded attorney-client conversations, according to court documents.

The special assistant prosecutor, Erin Tomasic, admitted that she had listened to multiple recorded conversations between a Leavenworth inmate and his lawyer, and one conversation between another female inmate at the prison and her lawyer, according to a notice (PDF) filed by federal prosecutors on June 19. The Kansas City Star and the Associated Press have reports.

Tomasic revealed to her supervisors on May 10 that she listened to the female defendant’s phone call with her mother’s friend, which also picked up a conversation between the mother and the defense lawyer, before a sentencing hearing, according to the June 19 filing. She also said she listened to the male defendant’s phone calls with his lawyer during his trial, but the conversations were in Spanish in an unfamiliar dialect, and she was unable to discern much of what was said.

The document was filed with a federal judge who has ordered a special master to investigate the recordings made by a private prison company now known as CoreCivic Inc. The judge, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, expanded the special master’s probe last month to include a look at the conduct of prosecutors and government agencies.

Tomasic had not mentioned that she had listened to the conversations in a September 2016 court hearing when she said law enforcement agents inadvertently listened to a few seconds of some inmate phone calls, but they stopped as soon as they realized a call was being made to a law office.

“Tomasic expressed remorse for having listened to the defendant’s calls,” the court filing said, “and for not revealing this action sooner.”