Alameda County Sheriff's Office Secretly Recorded Attorney-Client Conversations

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, August 20, 2018, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office illegally recorded at least one confidential conversation between a juvenile crime suspect and his attorney, the county public defender’s office said Monday [August 20, 2018], and an exchange between two sheriff’s officials captured on video suggests that the practice may have been routine.

The allegations that the agency made recordings that violated the attorney-client relationship were laid out in a motion filed in Alameda County Superior Court by the public defender’s office, and are supported by a body-camera video obtained by The Chronicle.

Secretly recording a conversation between a person in custody and the person’s attorney is a felony under California law. The district attorney’s office will investigate whether to file charges in the case, an agency spokeswoman said.

Public Defender Brendon Woods asked a Superior Court judge to order the Sheriff’s Office to bar “eavesdropping and illegal recording of privileged communications” between attorneys and their clients.

“It shouldn’t just be concerning to me as a public defender; it should be concerning to everyone as a citizen — that the government has taken on this position, or asserting some sort of authority, where they can violate people’s rights,” Woods told The Chronicle.
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