MIAMI — A Miami-Dade judge on Wednesday tossed out key evidence in a computer hacking case against OnlyFans model and accused killer Courtney Clenney and her parents, ruling that prosecutors had breached an established legal principle in obtaining it.
In a major blow to the state’s case, Circuit Judge Laura Shearon Cruz wrote in a two-paragraph opinion that the state violated attorney-client privilege when prosecutors collected texts and emails between Deborah Lyn Clenney and Kim DeWayne Clenney and their attorneys — even if prosecutors weren’t aware at the time that the model’s parents had hired legal representation.
“The proper remedy for this breach of privilege is exclusion of the communication from use in this case as evidence,” Shearon Cruz wrote.
In granting the motion to exclude the evidence, the judge sided with one of two demands from the Clenneys and their attorneys. The case was not dismissed, as requested by the defendants. Shearon Cruz said she would go into more detail on her decision during a Friday hearing.
State prosecutors Kathleen Hoague and Khalil Quinan left the courtroom quickly and without comment after the ruling. It wasn’t immediately clear if the judge’s order was a fatal blow to the case, or if the state intended to drop the charges in coming days. Jude Faccidomo, who represents the Clenneys, urged the state to do so as soon as possible.
“It’s a bedrock principle of privacy the state should never have breached. They entered the defense camp,” Faccidomo said. “All of that taints their prosecution. They targeted our clients Kim and Deborah, for no reason.”
How, or if, Wednesday’s decision affects the sensational murder trial that has gained international attention is not clear. Clenney — an OnlyFans model who at one point boasted more than 2 million followers — has been jailed since August 2022 after being charged with stabbing her boyfriend, Christian Obumseli, to death inside their bayfront Miami condo during a moment of rage.
The hacking charges, however, were an unexpected twist in a case that has taken a number of turns the past two years. With little or no warning, law enforcement descended on Kim and Deborah’s Austin, Texas, home in January after a judge signed a warrant that gave law enforcement access to iCloud accounts that stored communication between the Clenneys and their attorneys, Frank Prieto and Sabrina Puglisi.
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Investigators were frustrated that the Clenneys had what they believed was Obumseli’s personal laptop. The arrest warrant says that once access to the iCloud accounts was gained, investigators uncovered more than 4,000 messages, including conversations between Clenney, her parents and Prieto and Puglisi.
The main topic of conversation between the defendants and their attorneys was how to unlock Obumseli’s computer, which they eventually did. It’s not known if the state gained access to information in Obumseli’s computer or if anything was found that can or will be used during Courtney Clenney’s murder trial.
Kim, Deborah and Courtney Clenney were charged with single counts of illegally accessing Obumseli’s computer.
After the Clenneys filed the motion to suppress the evidence, the state argued it couldn’t have breached attorney-client privilege because Courtney Clenney’s parents hadn’t been charged with a crime and hadn’t yet hired legal representation. Prieto and Puglisi said otherwise, arguing they had been hired to represent Kim and Deborah Clenney since their daughter’s August 2022 arrest.
High-profile case
Clenney, now 30, was charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Obumseli after a heated argument in their bayside apartment in April 2022. News of the domestic strife between the young globetrotting couple — he was a cryptocurrency trader, she a popular social media influencer — propelled the story to international headlines. She was arrested two months later and extradited to Miami from Hawaii.
Friction between prosecutors and defense attorneys was almost immediate. Prieto cooperated with Court TV for a piece on his client. When the prosecution took issue with it and informed the judge, defense attorneys went on the attack, accusing the state of leaking information to reporters. The sides wrestled with the idea of a gag order, which was never formally addressed by the court.
Prosecution misconduct?
With Wednesday’s ruling by Judge Shearon Cruz, some defense attorneys suggested it was yet another instance of prosecutors with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office willing to overstep boundaries to win a case. Faccidomo wants the hacking case entirely dropped, referring to it in a motion as vindictive prosecution on the part of Quinan.
Earlier this year, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson was incensed enough at the tactics of prosecutors Michael Von Zamft and Stephen Mitchell during the re-sentencing in the murder trial of convicted gangster Corey Smith that she ordered them removed from the case. The judge was particularly irked by a jailhouse phone call between Von Zamft and a convicted informant and Mitchell’s defense of Von Zamft.
Their removal, in part, prompted a meeting between the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, in which the defense lawyers referred to the “toxic culture” of the office and its “win at all cost” attitude. They called for reforms, including an independent review of cases and more oversight.
Prieto, after the judge’s ruling Wednesday, said Courtney Clenney was merely acting in self-defense when she fatally stabbed her boyfriend of two years. He’s called for the removal of prosecutors and said another office should try the case.
“They should recuse themselves,” he said.
©2024 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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