BCA Agents Accused Of Eavesdropping On Private Calls, Texts Between Jail Inmates And Attorneys

BCA Agents Accused Of Eavesdropping On Private Calls, Texts Between Jail Inmates And Attorneys

A judge is calling members of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to testify in a St. Louis County courtroom next month after receiving information that a special agent directed local police to monitor jail communications protected by attorney-client privilege.

In a letter from the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office late last week, a prosecutor informed defense attorneys that the BCA had access to text messages and phone calls with three inmates.

The defendants are among four members of the Hells Angels Iron Range chapter arrested in December and charged with a variety of felonies, including kidnapping, assault, and rape.

In his letter, assistant county attorney Christopher Florey summarized a phone call with Gilbert Police Chief Ty Techar in which the chief said a special agent with the BCA was “going off the deep end” and that the case against the Hells Angels members “was falling apart.”

“Chief Techar further indicated he believed a review of jail text/calls, in this case, might be more widespread,” Florey wrote in his letter to defense attorneys.

Techar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Now lawyers for the defendants, including Brian Karalus, are asking the court to dismiss the criminal charges against their clients.

“I was like, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Karalus said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Karalus represents Jerand French, who he identifies as the president of the Hells Angels Iron Range chapter. Agents raided the chapter’s clubhouse in Eveleth late last year.

“These people have been after the Hells Angels for so long,” Karalus said about the BCA. “They’re obviously willing to cheat. That’s what happened here. They’re eavesdropping on attorney-client text messages.”

A spokesperson for the BCA tells 5 INVESTIGATES that it reviews jail communications as part of active investigations but that “typically any communication containing attorney/client privileged information is removed before we have access to it.”

The agency did not elaborate what happened in this case and deferred to the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office which declined to comment, citing the active case.

Shauna Kieffer, defense attorney for Paul Debelak, filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges against her client and appeared before a judge in St. Louis County on Tuesday.

“The Court should dismiss this case for these serious Fifth and Sixth Amendment violations,” Kieffer wrote.

While that motion is still pending, a judge ordered Debelak to be released from jail pending his next hearing in November.

Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, says allegations of investigators violating attorney-client protections are rare, especially with a statewide agency such as the BCA.

“It’s not just a couple officers in a small town who might not have gotten the memo about what their responsibilities are,” Moran said. “It’s very clear that law enforcement knew they were monitoring attorney-client communications. And that’s a problem.”

Also problematic, Moran says, is the county attorney’s revelation that monitoring of protected communication “might be an issue outside of this case.”

“It’s something the prosecutor needs to be looking into, maybe even the judge, because that is a hint that this might be more widespread misconduct,” Moran said. “The prosecutor needs to get to the bottom of it because it might be affecting other cases.”

SOURCE: abc KSTP.COM