SAN FRANCISCO – Defense lawyers have lost out on their bid to suppress wide swaths of evidence federal agents gained after planting recording devices outside the San Mateo County courthouse in 2009 and 2010.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California last year barred federal prosecutors from introducing more than 200 hours of recordings captured without a warrant as part of an investigation into bid-rigging at real estate auctions held outside the Redwood City building. But in a 13-page decision issued Tuesday, Breyer found defense lawyers failed to show the recordings netted any evidence investigators couldn’t have gotten by legal means. “That Agent X unlawfully obtained evidence on Date Y regarding Property Z does not put all evidence lawfully obtained by Agent X, on Date Y, or regarding Property Z off-limits for all time,” Breyer wrote. “It puts the offending evidence off-limits, along with other evidence discovered as a proximate result of the violation, but that’s it.”
