In the annals of prosecutors fighting dirty against public defenders, allegations of hacking and distributing sexytime photos don’t usually surface. But, hey, welcome to 2016!
This is the story Deputy Public Defender Christina Behle alleges in a Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that she filed on Friday against Deputy District Attorney Lisa Tanner. At the core of Behle’s complaint is a love triangle narrative involving Behle, Tanner, and Tanner’s estranged-but-not-necessarily-ex-husband. California free lovin’, man.
Per NBC Los Angeles:
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According to her lawsuit, Behle, a senior grade IV deputy public defender and mother of two, separated from her husband in 2012 and became romantically involved in June 2015 with Deputy Public Defender Michael Tanner, who was separated from Lisa Tanner.
The relationship between Behle and Michael Tanner left Lisa Tanner “deeply enraged,” the suit alleges. Tanner was living at the time with her boyfriend, but after Michael Tanner introduced their children to the plaintiff, she “made the conscious decision to publicly and professionally humiliate (Behle) in retaliation,” the suit alleges.
The real victim here is Tanner’s boyfriend who must be excited knowing there’s a complaint out there alleging that his girlfriend was still pining for her ex the whole time. Sorry dude.
Last October, Tanner told her daughter to obtain access to her father’s smart phone in order to gather material of “an intimate and compromising nature” regarding Behle’s relationship with him, including text messages and “intimate and compromising photos” of Behle, according to the suit.
Children as accessories to hacking… these allegations just keep getting more interesting.
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“Plaintiff specifically was told that Ms. Tanner shared the personal and intimate photos of plaintiff to dozens of DA’s office employees at the Van Nuys office,” the suit says.
Well, that would be awful. There’s really never a good reason for a DA to see you naked. And I am including people in current relationships with DAs.
Tanner obviously hasn’t filed a response yet, so this is just one side of the story, but, frankly, the veracity of these allegations is less important than the animosity between these offices. Not that prosecutors are known for their mercy to public defenders now, but regardless of how this public drama ends, there either already exists or will soon exist a complete breakdown in professional relations between these adversaries.
And if prosecutors and public defenders are this viscerally antagonistic, it’s the defendants who suffer.
Public Defender Sues Prosecutor in ‘Love Triangle’ [NBC Los Angeles]
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.