Lawyers accused of eavesdropping

Attorneys for a man accused of setting off a pipe bomb at the main Salt Lake City library likened federal prosecutors to a "wolf guarding the hen house" when it comes to their denial that they did not listen to jail recordings of phone calls Thomas James Zajac made to his defense attorneys.

During legal arguments in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, defense attorney Ed Wall said federal prosecutors and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives violated his client's constitutional rights when they received copies of audio recordings from the Weber County Jail. The recordings not only included conversations Zajac had with family and friends but also with his attorneys.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah said it subpoenaed the recordings from the Weber County Jail, who did not sort out the phone conversations, but denies it listened to the compiled disk.

At issue is a controversy over Zajac's history of not getting along with his defense attorneys. After going through several attorneys, federal defense attorneys told U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball that they no longer wanted to represent Zajac after evidence came up showing Zajac allegedly conspired with a private attorney to use the resources of the federal defender's office up until trial and then dump it in favor of a private attorney waiting in the wings. There was also evidence that a former defense attorney was working on the case, even though he had been suspended from federal practice on an unrelated matter.

Wall said prosecutors could have requested in their subpoena to omit attorney-client conversations from the recordings but did not do so. He called it "an intentional act" by the government to violate his client's constitutional rights.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Esqueda blamed the Weber County Jail's policies for not sorting out phone calls but denied his office listened to the recordings. Esqueda said jail staff cannot tell just by the phone number if the person called is a family member or an attorney unless the inmate says something. In this case, he said Zajac did not request confidential phone calls even though there is posted notice at the jail that all calls are recorded.

Wall called Esqueda's denial of listening to the phone conversations as a "wolf guarding the hen house."

Kimball took the arguments under advisement and says he will issue a written ruling on Zajac's motion to have the criminal charges against him dropped.

Zajac is charged with possessing an explosive device in an attempt to damage or destroy a building, violent crimes, making threats to use explosives among other charges.

If convicted, Zajac faces a mandatory 30 years, up to life, in prison.

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