Police, prosecutors bugged a Vista courtroom to get evidence against defendants in a murder case

[Zorro]

Defense lawyers say the bugging operation was misconduct. The DA’s office says such tactics are legal -- but will now be prohibited under a new policy.

When Mallissa James pleaded guilty on Nov. 19 to her role in the killing of Marjorie Gerwitt two years earlier in Carlsbad, it ended one part of a case where James once faced the death penalty.

But it left unresolved serious issues about the conduct of police, prosecutors and a judge.

In the months before the guilty plea, James’s defense lawyers had assembled evidence that in 2019, at the outset of the case, Carlsbad police and a prosecutor had secretly planted four electronic listening devices in the holding area inside an empty Vista courtroom — just an hour before James and a co-defendant were scheduled to make their first court appearance, and before either had spoken with a lawyer.

They then arranged for James and the co-defendant, Ian Bushee, to be placed inside the holding area, and recorded their conversation while listening from a nearby room.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2021-12-11/police-prosecutors-bugged-courtroom

It seems to me that this obvious misconduct could very well lead to future conviction reversals, if other similar actions and teh evidence collected weren't revealed to defense counsels.