'Epic mishap' doesn't justify dismissal of charges against 'Real Housewives' star’s son, judge rules
Josh Waring. Photo from the Costa Mesa Police Department.
On Friday, a California judge refused to dismiss attempted murder charges against Josh Waring, the son of a former The Real Housewives of Orange County cast member.
Waring’s lawyer, Joel Garson, had discovered that the phone vendor for the Orange County Jail recorded nearly 34,000 attorney-client phone calls. Judge Jonathan Fish said the “far-reaching intrusions” were “of constitutional dimension.”
But there is no justification to dismiss charges against Waring because of his recorded jailhouse calls, made when Waring was representing himself, Fish said. The Orange County Register, the Daily Pilot and Radar Online covered Fish’s decision.
Waring is the son of Real Housewives cast member Lauri Peterson. Garson had contended that authorities listened to Waring’s recorded calls in which he discussed confidential trial strategy.
Garson had contended that some of the recorded phone conversations involved lawyers, the Orange County Register reported. But according to Radar Online, Fish said in his opinion that none of the conversations recorded while Waring was representing himself involved a lawyer. He also said prosecutors in the case had acted legally and ethically.
Fish said the discovered recordings were an “epic mishap,” but there is “no evidence of an unjustifiable intent to harm” Waring.
The jail phone provider initially said 1,079 attorney-client phone calls had been recorded from the Orange County Jail, and 58 recordings were accessed by investigators for the sheriff’s department.
Court filings revealed in November that nearly 34,000 conversations were recorded, and the sheriff’s department accessed the calls 347 times, according to the Orange County Register.
Waring was charged with attempted murder for an alleged 2016 shooting outside a sober living facility. He says he didn’t do it.
In an interview from jail, Waring told the Orange County Register and Radar Online that he plans to appeal. He told Radar Online that his phone calls were not supposed to be recorded when he used his own jail pin code.
