Privileged Communications, Not!

When a client talks to his attorney, the law creates a "particular and peculiar benefit"--the conversation is private, confidential, and not discoverable.  So instances when the government intrude upon these conversations and attempt to use the conversations against a client offend the sensibilities of Bad Lawyers everywhere.  In recent years, we have beguin to see prosecutions of lawyers based on surreptious recordings of lawyers and clients as with radical NYC lawyer Lynne Stewart who currently doing hard time after becoming a messager of jihad for her client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric involved in the original bombing o fhte World Trade Center.

There have been numerous incidents of lawyers (see  Bad Lawyer's  post on Frank Pigantelli) who betray confidences and worse, actively participate to entrap clients as in the case of Omaha attorney Terry L. Haddock who wore a government wire to record conversations with his client as part of a investigation into a marijuana conspiracy as reported at Omaha.com.  Here's an excerpt fromTodd Cooper's story:

To his friends and former colleagues, this is the extent of Terry L. Haddock's existence today:  A voice on a speakerphone. A voice that echoes with both resolve and resignation.

In measured words, the Omaha attorney confides that he is in hiding after he wore a wire to help the U.S. government indict inmate Shannon E. Williams and 10 others in a massive marijuana conspiracy.  I realize I could lose my law license over this, his friends have recalled him saying in recent weeks. But, please, don't jump to conclusions.  Williams talked about committing crimes, about eliminating witnesses. I had to do something.

And that's it. Just as quickly as he tantalizes former colleagues, he shuts down — saying federal prosecutors have asked him not to talk about why he chose to risk his legal career, even his life, by taking on the marijuana ring and its alleged kingpin.

In a case that will hinge in large part on Haddock's credibility, here's what Haddock doesn't always divulge: His involvement in the federal investigation came after a yearlong stretch in which his personal and professional lives began to circle the drain.  Law enforcement officials close to the investigation say Haddock, 52, became enthralled with a 23-year-old woman from Zimbabwe who describes herself as a former escort. His wife filed for divorce. Credit card debt mounted. He was hospitalized for health problems and later treated for mental health problems. He stopped answering his phone, meeting with clients or showing up for court.  Then the federal government came calling, offering the man who friends say 'hates drugs' and 'hates drama' a front-row seat to both. Haddock began wearing a wire and smuggling a cell phone into the Douglas County Jail to witness Williams orchestrate the movement of marijuana and money from Phoenix to Omaha."
________________________________
People hire lawyers and talk freely to lawyers because of the attorney-client privilege.  Stunts like Haddock's and of the government agents who put Haddock up to taping his client, undermine respect for the law.  It is one thing to learn about the imminent commission of a crime and to approach the court to ask for removal from the representatio of a client--it is quite another to become an agent of the government under the guise of representing a client.