Careful When Spurning Lover Who Can Wiretap Your Phone

A New York prosecutor is accused of doing just that
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 30, 2016 2:08 PM CST
Prosecutor Accused of Tapping Ex-Lover's Phone
Stock image   (Getty Images / Bill Oxford)

Be careful if you get involved with a high-ranking prosecutor; you never know what she might do if the relationship comes to a bad end. Brooklyn prosecutor Tara Lenich, 41, is accused of forging judges' signatures in order to tap the phone belonging to a married NYPD detective in whom she was romantically interested, the New York Daily News reports. Lenich was arrested Monday and has been charged with two counts of eavesdropping and 20 counts of possession of a forged instrument after allegedly wiretapping Det. Jarrett Lemieux's calls for more than a year, between 2015 and 2016. Lenich and Lemieux, 46, had worked together on a 2014 case. Their exact personal relationship is not clear, but sources tell the New York Post they may have been involved at some point and Lenich may have been a "spurned lover."

Lenich told investigators that she was tapping Lemieux's phone as part of an Internal Affairs investigation, but sources say it's not clear whether she had a legitimate reason for the wiretaps (which targeted Lemieux's calls to another Brooklyn prosecutor, a woman the Post's sources say may have been another love interest of Lemieux's) or whether she was just stalking him. A staffer brought the wiretap investigation to a supervisor's attention after getting suspicious about how long it had gone on, and neither he nor the acting district attorney was aware of the investigation Lenich claimed the wiretap was related to. Lemieux is not accused of any misconduct but is on desk duty during the investigation. (More weird crimes stories.)

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