PHOENIX - A federal judge has blocked prosecutors from using what they learned from thousands of phone calls of then-Congressman Rick Renzi, potentially crippling the government's case against him.
In an often-stinging 25-page ruling, U.S. District Judge David Bury said federal agents illegally and repeatedly listened to calls between Renzi and Maria Baier, one of his attorneys. Bury said the monitoring continued even after it was clear Baier, who now is the state land commissioner in the Brewer administration, was representing the congressman.
Beyond that, the judge said the government concealed some of what it was doing from the court, which authorized the wiretaps, and failed to disclose other intercepted privileged communications.
Federal prosecutors admitted "mistakes were made" but argued only the improperly recorded conversations should be suppressed. Bury, however, said the conduct of prosecutors requires all the evidence seized to be suppressed.
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"The government conducted an unreasonable wholesale interception of calls they knew to be attorney-client communications," Bury wrote. And he said calls with an attorney that were inadvertently intercepted were not identified as privileged and sealed.
"While this conduct was not outrageous, it was an unreasonable violation of Title III (the Federal Wiretap Act) and the Fourth Amendment," the judge said. And that, he said, merits denying the government the use of anything they heard.
But Bury was unwilling to go the extra step sought by Renzi: Dismissal of the indictment or, at least, disqualifying the current crop of prosecutors from handling the case.
He said there is no evidence prosecutors accessed privileged attorney-client materials gathered by federal agents, other than in three instances which the judge described as "'oh shoot' moments."
Laura Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said her agency would not comment either on the ruling or how the suppression order will affect the ability to prosecute Renzi and two co-defendants, other than to say it will continue.
Calls to Renzi's attorneys were not returned.
Renzi was indicted two years ago on charges of extortion and other crimes after he allegedly used his position as a member of Congress, with a seat on the House Natural Resources Committee, to engineer a land sale in Cochise County that ultimately would put money into his pocket.
