Monitoring of Inmate and Attorney Investigated

A Ventura County sheriff’s deputy secretly monitored a conversation between murder suspect Gregory Scott Smith and his attorneys last month, possibly violating state law, authorities said Monday.

Smith was talking with his attorneys in a conference room at the county jail on an undetermined day in early April when Deputy A. C. Quintero switched on the intercom in their room and overheard a brief part of their conversation, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Kossoris said. Quintero reported the incident to the district attorney’s office, triggering investigations by the Sheriff’s Department and the California attorney general’s office, said Assistant Sheriff Richard Bryce.

Smith, 21, is being held in the March 23 murder of Paul Bailly, 8, of Northridge, whose gagged, burned body was found in a brush fire March 23 near Simi Valley.

Quintero, who has less than two years’ experience on the sheriff’s jail staff, may have violated a statute against intercepting a confidential communication between attorney and client, Bryce said. It was only the second time in 20 years that someone allegedly violated that law in Ventura County, County Counsel Frank O. Sieh said.

Bryce said Quintero was in the control room on the day of the incident.

“The best information I have is that, in trying to locate a specific person, he was switching through the rooms trying to make contact with someone and inadvertently turned on the microphone,” Bryce said.

Quintero heard a snatch of conversation among Smith and Public Defenders Duane Dammeyer and Richard Holly, who have since requested a gag order from Ventura County Superior Court to prevent Quintero from discussing what he heard, Dammeyer said.

“We’re embarrassed by the situation,” Bryce said. “We pride ourselves on cooperating with the public defender, as well as the district attorney, and we don’t want to do anything to disrupt that relationship.”