Defense lawyers concerned about secret jailhouse recordings in Bunkerville standoff case

Lawyers for one of the defendants in the Bunkerville standoff case say they are concerned that private phone conversations with their client are being secretly recorded at the federal detention center in Pahrump and turned over to prosecutors.

In court papers filed late Monday, Ryan Payne’s public defenders say they were told that the unlawful practice occurred in an unrelated criminal case involving an inmate at the Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, and they want to know whether it happened in their case and others.

“Denying Mr. Payne the ability to speak confidentially with counsel threatens a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel,” the lawyers wrote.

The Nevada U.S. attorney’s office turned over to the defense in the unrelated case “several audio recordings” of jailhouse calls between attorneys and their client, according to Assistant Federal Public Defenders William Carrico, Ryan Norwood and Brenda Weksler.

And that warrants a look into whether prosecutors have obtained similar recordings in the Bunkerville standoff case, the public defenders argued.

The lawyers want a federal judge to order the government to turn over any recordings of privileged phone conversations between them and Payne and instruct the company that runs the detention center, Corrections Corporation of America, to stop the practice.

They also want a special master appointed to determine the extent of the practice and see whether the constitutional rights of hundreds of inmates awaiting trial at the Pahrump facility are being violated.

“Given the large number of defendants potentially affected, litigation relating to CCA-Pahrump’s recording of privileged attorney-client calls could become quite cumbersome, involving extensive review of documents and phone recordings,” the lawyers wrote.

Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said she could not comment Tuesday on pending litigation, but her office has until Nov. 2 to respond to the court papers filed by the public defenders.

The papers were part of a flurry of pretrial defense motions filed Monday in the Bunkerville standoff case to beat a court-imposed deadline.

A total of 19 defendants, including Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy and four of his sons, were charged in March with conspiring to assault Bureau of Land Management agents on April 12, 2014, and take back the impounded Bundy cattle that had been grazing on federal land. Two later pleaded guilty, and the rest are to stand trial Feb. 6 before Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro.

Payne, a militia leader from Montana, pleaded guilty in the armed takeover of a government wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon earlier this year. He was transferred to Nevada to negotiate a plea agreement in the case here, but on Tuesday, Carrico said Payne no longer is seeking a deal.

Several defendants filed motions joining Payne’s push to determine whether phone conversations between inmates and their lawyers were being illegally recorded at the Pahrump detention center.

The public defender’s office also filed a motion on Payne’s behalf to move the trial out of Las Vegas because of what attorneys called the massive amount of inflammatory news coverage of the Bunkerville confrontation.

In addition, Payne and other defendants have filed motions to dismiss the charges.

Cliven Bundy, who is looking for a new lawyer, received a two-week extension to file his pretrial motions. His son Ammon Bundy also received an extension because he is standing trial in the Oregon takeover.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.