The Feds charged a former prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office with forging judges’ signatures in order to illegally wiretap the phone conversations and text messages of two people for more than a year, said a spokesman for the Department of Justice on Monday.
Former assistant district attorney Tara Lenich — who supervised other assistant district attorneys in the office — allegedly cut out the signatures of various Supreme Court Judges from legit documents and taped them onto fabricated orders authorizing the DA’s office to intercept the phone records of a detective and another assistant district attorney in the same office, a source said.
Lenich was reportedly romantically involved with the detective before he dumped her and started hitting it off with the other prosecutor, according to the New York Post.
And what’s more, Lenich allegedly told her colleagues that she was engaged in a confidential investigation and warned them not to read any of the phone records of the calls she had illegally tapped and recorded, according to court documents.
Lenich — charged with two counts of illegal wiretapping — allegedly took advantage of her job as a public prosecutor and her superior position in the District Attorney’s office in order to spy on the two people, said acting U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde in a statement.
“Tara Lenich violated her duty to the public when she engaged in a long-running scheme to forge judicial documents in order to illegally wiretap telephones,” said Rohde.
Lenich pleaded not guilty to the charges on March 27 and was released on a $500,000 bond. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of both counts, the court spokesman said.
Lenich’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
