A Maricopa County Sheriff's detention officer told a Superior Court judge on Friday that he removed documents from a defense attorney's table last week because he recognized the paperwork as material that court security employees had not previously screened, according to an attorney representing the Sheriff's Office.

The detention officer's decision in a hearing on Oct. 19 led Judge Lisa Flores to suspend the sentencing for Antonio Lozano.

At a hearing before Judge Gary Donahoe on Friday morning, Officer Adam Stoddard said security officers had screened defense documents in the case, all of which were typed on white paper with a legal caption on them, said Tom Liddy, an attorney from Maricopa County's civil division who appeared at the hearing Friday on behalf of the Sheriff's Office.

The record of the hearing Friday was sealed.

Stoddard told the judge that when he walked near the defense attorney's table he recognized some documents that weren't previously screened, Liddy said, so he had the paperwork copied for the record and returned it to the defendant's table.

Donahoe reviewed the paperwork in question on Friday and determined that the documents were subject to attorney-client privilege, Liddy said.

The only question remaining, Liddy said, is whether Stoddard was acting in good faith when he had the documents copied or whether he was in contempt.

After more than 90 minutes of testimony from Stoddard, Donahoe continued the hearing to Thursday where he could make a ruling, Liddy said.

Security officers regularly screen paperwork for in-custody defendants, like Lozano, to ensure that there is no contraband stuffed between the documents and that nothing is included which could be used as a weapon, Liddy said.

Lozano pleaded guilty to aggravated assault on Sept. 10 and was in a sentencing hearing when, according to court-surveillance video, he noticed Stoddard taking the documents. Lozano then alerts his defense attorney, Joanne Cuccia.

Cuccia did not return a call for comment.

A defense attorney who saw video of the event expressed shock.

"He did it with such utter nonchalance; it appears to me there was some direction for him to do that. It's just completely astounding," criminal defense attorney Mike Black told Channel 12 (KPNX).

Sheriff's Deputy Chief Jack MacIntyre said a detention officer screening paperwork was standard procedure.

"The original papers were given back to the defense attorney, and the copy that was made was sealed in an envelope and given to county counsel. When county counsel read them, they gave them back to the defense attorney," MacIntyre said. "Nobody from the Sheriff's Office ever read them."