Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Assistant District Attorney Pleads Guilty to Wiretapping NYPD Love Interest

By Janon Fisher | April 3, 2017 4:39pm
 A former top Brooklyn prosecutor was fired after she was charged with forging judge's signatures to eavesdrop on an NYPD detective.
A former top Brooklyn prosecutor was fired after she was charged with forging judge's signatures to eavesdrop on an NYPD detective.
View Full Caption
Kings County District Attorney/Stock photo

BROOKLYN — The lovelorn Brooklyn prosecutor who forged judges' signatures to eavesdrop on an NYPD detective she dated and another assistant DA who was his new love interest pleaded guilty Monday in federal court.

Tara Lenich, 41, who has since been fired from her top job in an elite drug- and gun-ring unit, admitted to cutting and pasting judges' signatures to get illegal wiretaps approved from June 2015 to November 2016, allowing her to listen in on conversations between the detective and his new flame.

"I'd like to apologize and say that I am sorry for my actions," Lenich said in court.

The crime was originally discovered by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office in November 2016, when an investigator noticed that the wiretap had been authorized for more than a year, an unusual length of time for the unit, according to a law enforcement source.

The U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn took over the case, charging her with illegal wiretapping at the end of March and prompting the Brooklyn District Attorney's office to drop their case on Friday.

Lenich pleaded guilty to illegal wiretapping charges before Judge William Kuntz at about noon on Monday.

She's expected to get well under the maximum 10 years in federal prison in light of her previously clean record and service in the Brooklyn DA's office.

"We look forward to making a case at sentencing that she deserves lenient treatment based on the exemplary life that she has lived," said her lawyer, Gary Farrell.

No date has been set for her sentencing.

At the time of her state charges, the Brooklyn DA's office said that it was reviewing its protocols for wiretaps.