Crime

Filming Porn In The Attorney Meeting Rooms Is Frowned Upon In This Penitentiary

This is why we can't have nice things.

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It’d be one thing if an attorney were using the private client meeting rooms in a jail to film porn scenes with his clients. Like, it’d be wrong and bad and criminal. It’d be a betrayal of the attorney-client relationship. But it wouldn’t, necessarily, ruin the attorney-client privilege for everybody else. We’d stop the bad man, and move on with our business.

But what Tampa attorney, Andrew B. Spark, allegedly did could cost other attorneys and their clients some of the special privileges accorded to the sacrosanct attorney-client relationship.

Spark allegedly had sex with women inmates at the Pinellas County Jail in private rooms reserved for attorneys to talk to their clients. He filmed them, telling them he was making a porno — entitled “Girls in Jail,” the most pedestrian title imaginable — and paid them $30 to $40 in their jail commissary accounts.

But he wasn’t actually representing the women. He told the corrections officers he was their lawyer, but he was apparently just pulling names from prostitution busts.

Aside from the obvious and gross sexual misconduct, this could be a big deal for criminal defense attorneys in Tampa. Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri seems pretty pissed off:

“He duped the system because he came in there representing himself as a lawyer,” Gualtieri said at a news conference Monday. “There’s something that is sacrosanct about that lawyer-client relationship, and that’s why we give great consideration and, frankly, deference to it.”

Most people aren’t allowed to bring electronic equipment into the jail, but lawyers are because they might be dictating notes. Lawyers used to have to prove they were the attorney of record before they could see inmates, but that rule was changed so that family members could send in attorneys to talk to inmates who might not yet represent them. And, of course, the very concept of a “private” meeting room is only there so the jail can respect attorney-client privilege.

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Spark abused all of that and puts those protections at risk.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Sheriff Gualtieri is not considering changing policies in light of Spark’s alleged activities.

Which is nice, but also brings us to the other side of the coin: Spark abused the process but ALSO allegedly abused women — allegedly two, but potentially more. He apparently did this right under the noses of prison officials. One report claims that he would use his back to “shield the window” while inmates performed sex acts in front of him.

You’re telling me it’s 2017 and the only thing standing between the safety of women inmates and a Caged Heat reality film is a dude fogging up a prison window?

I don’t know that there’s a process fix that both protects attorney-client confidences AND protects inmates from criminal sexual predators with law degrees. What I do know is that prison is the worst and should really be reserved for only the very worst our society has to offer.

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Sheriff: Tampa lawyer used Pinellas jail to film porn videos [Tampa Bay Times]

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