Kouri Richins’ public defenders agree with 3rd District Judge Richard Mrazik: they don’t have evidence to show prosecutors or jailers violated attorney-client privilege rules.
Her previous defense team from the Salt Lake-based firm Ray, Quinney & Nebeker moved to disqualify the Summit County Attorney’s Office on the same day it left the case in May.
In court papers, the old defense team said prosecutors directed jail staff to read Richins’ notebook, which they claimed was a privileged communication.
“I don't see any legal issue with jail staff reviewing, scanning a notebook for words, diagrams or contraband that would constitute or implicate a safety concern,” the judge said Aug. 8.
“We would agree with that,” Wendy Lewis, one of Richins’ public defenders, responded. “I know that the motion filed by Ray Quinney has intimated that it went farther than that, but yes, as you said, we don't have any affidavits to support that.”
Lewis also agrees they don’t have evidence that Summit County Chief Prosecutor Bradley Bloodworth listened to phone calls between Richins and Ray Quinney associate Ramzi Hamady.
“Other than a few occasions on which Mr. Bloodworth listened to the minimal amount of time necessary to identify Mr. Hamady as a participant in the call, and after which Mr. Bloodworth promptly stopped the listening and moved on,” Mrazik said.
Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said the attorney-client phone calls were handed over to a third party attorney.
When Lewis and her partner Kathy Nester took over as Richins’ attorneys they asked the third-party attorney to remove the calls from the evidence database, which they did.
The calls were recorded because Hamady was not on an app used by the defense team to protect its conversations, but was instead on the normal Summit County jail phone line.
Olson did ask Mrazik to go farther than simply dismissing the old motion. She believes the motion was an attempt to introduce an issue that could be appealed, not not a good faith effort to ensure a fair trial the first go around. She said it’s becoming a common tactic.
“So if their client is convicted, they have a good shot at a second trial. Let's call this the poisonous breadcrumb strategy,” Olson said. “I am one member of the bar who strongly disagrees with that conduct.”
The county attorney asked the judge to include factual findings in his ruling that censure Ray Quinney and vindicate prosecutors.
But it’s not clear whether Mrazik will do that. He has yet to issue a written ruling.
Ray Quinney’s lead defense attorney, Skye Lazaro, declined to comment until he does.
Richins is slated for a three-day preliminary hearing that begins Aug. 26 to determine if she stands trial for the murder of her late husband Eric Richins.
She’s accused of attempting to, and then successfully, poisoning him with fentanyl. Richins would go on to write a children’s book about grief featuring their three children.
