Judge axed evidence when cops took Fifth in lawyer-client eavesdropping; will she dismiss 2nd case?
For the second time this year, an Indiana judge will have to decide whether to eviscerate evidence in a slaying case due to claimed inadvertent eavesdropping by police in LaPorte County.
Currently before Judge Kathleen Lang is a motion by lawyers representing John Larkin to dismiss a voluntary manslaughter case over the fatal shooting of his wife in Long Beach, reports the Chicago Sun-Times (sub. req.).
Larkin’s lawyers say the prosecution sent them a recording of a December 2012 conversation between their client and his previous counsel that took place at the LaPorte County Jail in which trial strategy was discussed.
The government says the conversation was accidentally recorded and wasn’t privileged because it occurred between Larkin and his former counsel, the newspaper recounts.
Earlier this year, Lang ruled that seven police officers who took the Fifth during an evidentiary hearing in the Michigan City murder case against Brian Jordan Taylor could not testify at his trial,
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Robert Neary said in a March 19 letter that he and others overheard a portion of a March 14 attorney-client conversation involving Taylor on a video feed after a recording device was turned off.
Neary said he told others in the room not to look for a gun that apparently was discussed by Taylor and his counsel, the Sun-Times reports. However, Michigan City police somehow obtained it and both sides later agreed it would not be used at trial.
Previous Herald-Argus and News-Dispatch articles provide additional details.
