1/31/2020 Brooklyn Prosecutor Forged Judges' Signatures On Wiretap Warrants To Eavesdrop On A 'Love Interest' | Techdirt

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Brooklyn Prosecutor Forged Judges' Signatures On Wiretap Warrants

To Eavesdrop On A 'Love Interest'
from the rules-are-for-other-people dept
Wed, Nov 30th 2016 10:42am — Tim Cushing Advertisement

The reason there are so many controls and layers of oversight over wiretap warrants is
because the potential for abuse is huge. The FBI abused its wiretap authority for years,
which resulted in new restrictions for federal wiretap warrants. The DEA has found a way
Legal Issues to route around these, but at the expense of its investigations.

At the state level, the vetting doesn't appear to be as thorough. An insider who knew the weaknesses in the
system abused wiretap warrants to perform some very personal surveillance.

A high-ranking prosecutor in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office was arrested this
week on charges that she used an illegal wiretap to spy on a police detective and one of
her colleagues in what a law-enforcement official described as a love triangle gone
wrong.

The prosecutor, Tara Lenich, was taken into custody on Monday and fired after
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investigators in the district attorney’s office learned over Thanksgiving weekend that
Essential Reading
she had conducted the illicit surveillance because of “a personal entanglement between
her and the detective,” according to the law enforcement official, who spoke on the Hot Topics
condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the case.
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Give the wrong person enough power and they're sure to abuse it. Lenich forged judges' signatures Backdoor To A Backdoor?
repeatedly to extend her very personal wiretap warrant every 30 days. This allowed her to illegally
eavesdrop on conversations for nearly a year. She ducked questions about her wiretap by claiming she was 5.1 Appeals Court Tells Serial Litigant
working on a sensititive investigation in conjunction with the NYPD Internal Affairs department. Runescape Didn't Violate His
Constitutional Rights By Muting His
As defense lawyer Wilson A. LaFaurie points out, a system heavily-reliant on signatures raises some Account
questions about the trustworthiness of that system.
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“The public should have a tangible fear of this,” Mr. LaFaurie said. If prosecutors were
willing to forge a judge’s signature, he said, they could also potentially manipulate New To Techdirt?
evidence for other cases by forging the signatures of witnesses, crime victims or police Explore some core concepts:
detectives.
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At least in the cases of the judges whose signatures were forged, those can be verified by asking the judges Making Money In Entertainment
themselves. In some of the hypothetical cases LaFaurie refers to, there may be no one to ask.
Step One To Embracing A Lack Of
The most disheartening part of this mini-debacle is the responses from the district attorney's office. The Scarcity: Recognize What Market You're
spokesman for the office says an internal review of protocols and guidelines is underway, but says nothing Really In
about digging through Lenich's cases for other possible misconduct. The best protocols and procedures may If Intellectual Property Is Neither
already be in place, but that's not going to stop someone determined to abuse their power. And there's no Intellectual, Nor Property, What Is It?
way to confirm they haven't abused this power in the past if you're not willing to examine their body of
read all »
work.
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Lenich's lawyer's statement is even worse, although it can be partially forgiven as he's not acting as an
agent of the state.

Gary Farrell, Ms. Lenich’s lawyer, said he did not believe there was “any merit to the
claims that these charges somehow impugn wiretaps for other cases.”

Actually, it does impugn wiretaps for other cases, especially in cases overseen by his client. Her lawyer
says there's nothing to see here, which is fine in terms of advocating for a client. But the DA's office seems
to hold the same opinion, which is much more worrisome. Whenever abuse is uncovered, the usual
response is to treat it like a unicorn, rather than possibly a leading indicator of malfeasance yet to be
uncovered.
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Then there's this:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161130/09293036157/brooklyn-prosecutor-forged-judges-signatures-wiretap-warrants-to-eavesdrop-love-interest.shtml 1/6
1/31/2020 Brooklyn Prosecutor Forged Judges' Signatures On Wiretap Warrants To Eavesdrop On A 'Love Interest' | Techdirt

Mr. Farrell said Ms. Lenich was well known and well liked in Brooklyn legal circles and The C++ Programming
had a reputation for fairness and professionalism.
Bundle: Beginner to
Well, not so much now. All it takes is one severe, felonious abuse of the system to undo all of that goodwill Expert
and cause collateral damage to the reputation of the office she served.

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Filed Under: brooklyn, lovint, surveillance, tara lenich, wiretaps

22 Comments | Leave a Comment

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+ + FW LW
I.T. Guy, 30 Nov 2016 @ 11:50am

Re: Heheheh!

Um... She forged Judge(s) names for nearly a year. She should do jail time and be disbarred for life.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 1:08pm

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Disbarment for life? um no so much.
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The motivation should always be taken into account.

Maybe she should be disallowed to work as a prosecutor for life.
But to ban her from all law practice is pretty severe for a lapse in judgment over a love triangle.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Uriel-238 (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 1:18pm

There is no room for lapses of judgement.

Part of the problem is that the justice system has no checks or balances for lapses in judgement.
When a judge shows a lapse in judgement innocent people go to prison for life. Innocent people die.
So no, until our system is such that it takes three judges (or nine) to sign a warrant, until the fourth
amendment is stringently enforced, until we criminalize use of new technology for detection until it is
rigorously tested and regulated, until we tolerate not one false positive dog sniff (or any other test to
get probable cause)...
Then no. One incident of a lapse in judgement should disbar a prosecutor, dismissal of a judge, or the
firing of an officer with prejudice.
People die from lapses in judgement within our legal system, and for that we have no respect for the
legal system. It's only there because they hold the guns and they use the guns to stay in position.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
TripMN, 30 Nov 2016 @ 1:44pm

Re: Re: Re: Heheheh!

As a layer and prosecutor she lied to the court and/or representatives of the state and forged documents
for almost a year so that she could abridge someone's rights. Every thirty days means she did this at least
10 times. 1 time is a mistake in judgement, 10+ times is a pattern.

So lets talk equivalences.

An MD - 10+ incidences of fondling a patient(s) while they are under anesthetic or are unconscious. The
patient(s) never knew their rights were violated, but the Dr. did this on multiple occasions and had
multiple "lapses in judgement". The Dr. should be sent to jail and lose their license, no?

Police Officer - Uses badge to talk local business owners into giving him a little extra so that he responds
to calls in their neighborhood faster - patrols more often... you know, soft extortion. The officer does this
to 10+ businesses. Once found out, shouldn't the officer lose his badge and gun, spend some time in jail,
and also never be allowed to work as an LEO ever again?

All of these theoretical wrongs contain one common element, abuse of power and trust put in a
job/institution. Abusing this power should come with the harshest penalties, not the most lenient.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
That One Guy (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 3:57pm

Re: Re: Re: Heheheh!

Disbarment for life? um no so much.

Yes so much. This was not a minor, one-time event where emotion caused a temporary 'lapse of
judgement', she repeatedly forged a judge's signature in order to conduct illegal surveillance of two
people over the course of a year.

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That goes well beyond an 'oops' and into deliberate and flagrant abuse of authority, and makes it clear
that she cannot be trusted to have that authority. As such permanent disbarment would be entirely
fitting, both as a punishment for her actions and as a message that such activity carries harsh penalties
for anyone else considering doing anything similar.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 6:56pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Heheheh!

Ouch, they don't like bitches like that at rikers island.

[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2016 @ 5:27am

Re: Re: Re: Heheheh!

Why not? This person has clearly deemed themselves to not have the mental capacity or moral compass to
assume that eavesdropping and cyberstalking potential lve interests is objectionable for someone held to
a higher standard of account.

Why shouldn't they lose their license to practice?

[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Wendy Cockcroft, 1 Dec 2016 @ 6:11am

Re: Re: Re: Heheheh!

**But to ban her from all law practice is pretty severe for a lapse in judgment over a love triangle.**

Multiple lapses of judgement, bunny-boiler attitude. She should never be allowed to have such power
again.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Vidiot (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 11:31am

" ... a system heavily-reliant on signatures raises some questions about the trustworthiness of that system."
Note that banks and financial institutions... think credit cards... have largely walked away from even
requiring, let alone validating, signatures for transactional purposes; they want chip-and-pin or other, higher-
security means.
So a scrawled signature is trusted to authorize covert surveillance... but not trusted enough to charge a latte
at Starbucks.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
orbitalinsertion (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 11:41am

Re:

Assuming chip and PIN chips have gotten any better.

[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Ben (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 11:53am

Re:

Antiquated though it is, I thought this was the reason for Notary Publics. Their seal provides at least some
indication that the person who signed something is actually that person.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
orbitalinsertion (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 11:40am

Actually, it does impugn wiretaps for other cases, especially in cases overseen by his client.

Well yeah, but why even specifically wiretaps? Everything could be suspect.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

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+ + FW LW
Norahc (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 12:14pm

Just glad

We should be glad she didn't have access to something like the new Rule 41. Imagine how hard it would be to
discover abuses like this if every search warrant, wiretap order, pen trace order, etc was "signed" by a different
judge in a different district each time.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 12:23pm

Doesn't Impugn Wiretaps?

First of all, this impugns not merely wiretaps related Lenich's cases, but everything touched by Lenich. Every
defense attorney for a case on which Lenich has had any remit should file for dismissal (starting position,
whether it works or not - make it EXPENSIVE for Brooklyn).
Second, of course this impugns ALL wiretaps in Brooklyn, since obviously wiretaps can be illegally
obtained. Every defense attorney for a case current or closed that involves a wiretap should demand a review
that demonstrates wiretaps affecting his client were legally obtained (again, make it EXPENSIVE for Brooklyn).
Finally, the title "officer of the court" is not an award in a popularity or beauty contest. No matter how many
people like her, Lenich should be disbarred and prosecuted for a raft of crimes related to malfeasance and
violations of civil rights.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 1:21pm

> Mr. Farrell said Ms. Lenich was well known and well liked in Brooklyn legal circles and had a reputation for
fairness and professionalism.

Sounds more like a popularity contest than an investigation.

[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 2:37pm

More common than you think.

In the Maryanna Godboldo case, it was found that the social services dept that Mia Wenk was part of, in fact
had a rubber stamp of Judge Leslie Kim Smith's signature, used by worker Marcia Hurst to "authorize" what
eventually became a siege of Ms Godboldos home.

In light of this, one must wonder how many of those rubber stamps are lying around - something which defeats
the entire purpose, as the whole point of putting warrants and such before a judge is the hope they might
actually read them, but if they never even see them....
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 2:53pm

I dont know of any judges that actually keep copies or records of the warrants that are signed. The prosecutor
or police go in to the court or chambers, have the judge sign the only copy, and then AFTER the warrant is
served, executed, etc, does it get returned and filed.
Most judges could never tell you whether they actually signed a specific warrant.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2016 @ 6:33am

i bet jerry sandusky wishes he had gone into law enforcement in some capacity. he'd be sitting pretty today.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

+ + FW LW
Wyrm (profile), 1 Dec 2016 @ 9:13am

motive

Whenever abuse is uncovered, the usual response is to treat it like a unicorn, rather than
possibly a leading indicator of malfeasance yet to be uncovered.

I think it's more of a difference between "I did it to jail suspects and it made the system look tough on crime"
and "I did it for myself and it made the system look bad".
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

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+ + FW LW
Brooklyn Prosecutor, 1 Dec 2016 @ 9:15am

"But my love of interest was dating a terrorist. Something had to be done!"

[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

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