Tara Lenich

Tara Lenich
Born:
Charges:	Conspiracy to commit illegal wiretapping (intentional interception of communications)
Sentence:	One year and one day in federal prison
Facility:
Status:	Released

Tara Lenich is a former assistant district attorney in the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney's Office who was convicted in federal court for running an illegal wiretapping scheme. Lenich forged the signatures of state judges on fabricated eavesdropping orders. She used those orders to intercept the calls and text messages of two people: a fellow Brooklyn prosecutor and a New York City Police Department detective with whom she had been personally involved.

Lenich had worked at the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office since 2005. By the time of her arrest she was deputy chief of the office's special investigations unit, a post that gave her authority over wiretap applications. She used that authority to bypass the courts entirely. The fabricated orders ran for more than a year, from June 2015 until her arrest in November 2016.

She pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York on April 4, 2017. On February 2, 2018, U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz II sentenced her to one year and one day in federal prison. She was disbarred as a result of the conviction.

Background

Lenich joined the Kings County District Attorney's Office in 2005. Over the next decade she rose through the office and was assigned to its special investigations work. At the time of the conduct that led to her prosecution she held the title of deputy chief of special investigations.

The role carried real power over surveillance. Special investigations handled wiretap requests, and Lenich had oversight of the office's wire room operations. A lawful wiretap in New York requires a judge to sign an eavesdropping order. Lenich's position meant she knew how those orders were drafted, what they looked like, and how cellular carriers processed them. That knowledge became the mechanism of the offense.

The Wiretapping Scheme

The surveillance targeted two people. One was a fellow assistant district attorney in the Brooklyn office. The other was a New York City Police Department detective. Lenich had been personally involved with the detective. News reporting identified the prosecutor as Stephanie Rosenfeld and the detective as Jarrett Lemieux; federal filings referred to the targets without naming them.

Lenich did not seek a judge's approval. She manufactured it. She took the genuine signatures of state judges from legitimate court documents, cut them out, and taped them onto orders she had drafted herself. The result looked like a signed eavesdropping order. She then submitted the forged orders to cellular providers, which activated the intercepts.

The forgeries were not isolated. Federal prosecutors said Lenich created and submitted seven forged judicial orders to one cellular provider to intercept communications on a single target phone. Investigators later found copies of roughly twenty forged wiretap orders on her office computer. Each order had a finite duration, so the scheme required repeated renewals to keep the intercepts live across many months.

The intercepts ran from June 2015 to November 2016. Across that period Lenich listened to phone calls and read text messages from the two phones. The scheme ended when the conduct was discovered and reported within the district attorney's office, which referred the matter to federal authorities.

Charges and Guilty Plea

Lenich was arrested in November 2016. The federal charges were brought in the Eastern District of New York. The case was investigated and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for that district.

On April 4, 2017, Lenich pleaded guilty. She admitted to two counts of illegal interception of communications, a class D felony under federal wiretap law. The plea covered the fabricated orders used against both target phones. Her attorney said she had wanted to accept responsibility and plead guilty at the first opportunity.

Under the federal sentencing guidelines, the offenses carried an advisory range that topped out near fourteen months. The statute permitted a longer term, but the calculated range placed her exposure low. The plea left the final term to the court.

Sentencing

U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz II sentenced Lenich on February 2, 2018. He imposed one year and one day in federal prison. The extra day matters under federal practice: a sentence of more than one year makes an inmate eligible for good-conduct credit, which can shorten actual time served.

At sentencing Lenich was 42 years old. The judge framed the case in literary terms, describing a protagonist undone by a single fatal flaw. The conviction ended her legal career. She was disbarred.

The fallout reached beyond Lenich herself. Because she had handled or touched investigations during her years in special investigations, the district attorney's office reviewed cases she had been involved in. Her conduct also drew civil litigation. A class action filed on behalf of people whose phones or records may have been swept into her surveillance alleged that the scheme reached far more individuals than the two named targets, with one complaint asserting hundreds of affected people. That civil case proceeded separately from the criminal conviction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What did Tara Lenich do?

Tara Lenich was a Brooklyn assistant district attorney who forged judges' signatures to create fake wiretap orders. She used those orders to illegally intercept the calls and text messages of a fellow prosecutor and a New York City police detective she had been personally involved with. The surveillance ran from June 2015 until her arrest in November 2016.

Q: What was Tara Lenich charged with?

She was charged in the Eastern District of New York with illegal interception of communications. On April 4, 2017, she pleaded guilty to two counts of illegally intercepting oral and electronic communications, a class D felony under federal wiretap law.

Q: How long was Tara Lenich's sentence?

U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz II sentenced her on February 2, 2018, to one year and one day in federal prison.

Q: Who did Tara Lenich wiretap?

She wiretapped two people: a fellow Brooklyn assistant district attorney and an NYPD detective with whom she had been romantically involved. Federal filings did not name them, but news outlets identified the prosecutor as Stephanie Rosenfeld and the detective as Jarrett Lemieux.

Q: How did Tara Lenich forge the wiretap orders?

She cut genuine signatures of state judges from legitimate court documents and taped them onto eavesdropping orders she had drafted herself. She then submitted the forged orders to cellular providers, which activated the intercepts. Roughly twenty forged orders were later found on her office computer.

Q: Was Tara Lenich disbarred?

Yes. She was disbarred as a result of the conviction, ending her career as a prosecutor.

Q: How did Tara Lenich get caught?

The conduct was discovered and reported within the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, which referred the matter to federal authorities. She was arrested in November 2016.