In a rare occurrence, a Miami-Dade judge on Friday granted defense attorneys for a social media model accused of murdering her boyfriend the opportunity to put a state attorney on the stand, under oath.
Attorneys for Courtney Clenney will be allowed to question the state attorney about what content the prosecutor saw or didn’t see that was confidential from the family’s iCloud accounts, it was learned during a hearing attended by Clenney.
Clenney, 28, is facing a second-degree murder charge in the April 2022 stabbing death of her boyfriend, 27-year-old Christian Obumseli, at the couple’s Edgewater condo.
The OnlyFans model accused of fatally stabbing her boyfriend is set to go to trial next year.
After the murder, in November 2023, records state the City of Miami Police Department obtained and executed a warrant for the iCloud accounts of Clenney and her parents, Kim and Deborah.
Within the iCloud accounts, prosecutors obtained text messages that included the parents messaging with their daughter’s attorneys, allegedly discussing how to break into the victim’s laptop.
State attorneys ended up filing charges against the parents and the model for allegedly breaking into the computer.
However, months later they were forced to drop the cases after Judge Laura Cruz ruled to exclude a key piece of evidence in the laptop case, concluding that prosecutors violated attorney-client privilege by accessing private family conversations with their attorneys regarding the laptop.
Prosecutors dropped a computer hacking case against OnlyFans model and murder suspect Courtney Clenney and her parents after a judge found the state improperly gathered evidence against them. NBC6’s Tony Pipitone reports.
Out of that laptop ruling, defense attorneys Frank Prieto and Sabrina Puglisi grew worried about what prosecutors potentially saw in the iCloud accounts.
In their motion, defense attorneys wrote that they believe, “Assistant State Attorney Khalil Quinan conducted a search of the iCloud accounts and discovered the ‘Team Courtney’ communications. The content of the ‘Team Courtney’ chat involved…communication regarding case investigation, witness testimony, defense witnesses, expert witnesses, financial obligations, defense theories, counsel’s thoughts and impressions, and opinions on the case. These were communications that the parties believed to be private and privileged.”
On the other hand, state attorneys strongly disagreed with the request to depose one of their own.
“Defendant’s motion must be stricken and this Court must enter a protective order, not only because her attempt to depose ASA Quinan is overbroad, vague, and seeks confidential, privileged, and exempt matters, but also because authorizing such a fishing expedition and harassment of a prosecutor would create an undue burden in violation of both Florida and United States law,” state attorneys wrote in their motion.
State attorneys also added they could be entitled to “absolute immunity when they perform their quasi-judicial function of initiating prosecution and presenting the State’s case.”
NBC 6’s Kristin Sanchez has more on the four hours of interrogation in the case of Courtney Clenney.
Prieto told NBC6 Friday that being allowed to question the prosecutor was absolutely necessary.
“The state read confidential information, attorney, client, and work product privilege documents, which laid out our defense strategy. The only way that we can acquire the depth and breath of that invasion of the defense camp is by deposing the state attorney, and I think the judge saw that,” Prieto said.
At the end of the hearing, Judge Laura Cruz granted Prieto’s request, in part. Defense attorneys will be allowed to question Quinan under oath but only ask limited questions.
In response, state attorneys requested the deposition be taken behind closed doors.
Judge Cruz will sit in during the deposition.
Based on the information obtained from the Quinan’s deposition, defense attorneys could try and get the state attorney’s office disqualified from the case or have the current prosecutor team removed.
Clenney has remained jailed without bond while she awaits trial, but her attorneys have previously sought to have her released. She has pleaded not guilty.
christianvstoby via Instagram
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said the couple had an “extremely tempestuous and combative relationship” and that Obumseli was the victim of domestic violence, while Clenney’s attorneys have said she was the victim of an abusive relationship and that she stabbed him in self-defense.
Clenney, who went by the name Courtney Tailor on social media, including on OnlyFans, had more than 2 million Instagram followers at the time of Obumseli’s death.
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