Last time we checked in with (former) Brooklyn prosecutor Tara Lenich, she was facing state charges for abusing wiretap warrants to listen in on conversations between a police detective and one of her colleagues. This stemmed from what was termed a „personal entanglement“ between her and the detective.

The wiretap warrants couldn‘t be obtained without a judge‘s signature. Since there was no probable cause for the warrant, no judge would sign them. Lenich had a solution. She just forged the judge‘s signature on the warrant. And then she kept forging judges‘ signatures, stretching out her illicit surveillance for more than a year, with a faked signature on every 30-day renewal.

Lenich is now facing federal charges. An indictment handed down by DOJ pretty much repeats the allegation of the state charges, detailing Lenich‘s long-running, extremely-personal wiretap operation.