Jail Rooms Changed to Protect Privacy

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department is modifying interview rooms at the County Jail to make sure that deputies cannot overhear conversations between prisoners and their lawyers.

The Sheriff’s Department decided to make the changes after a deputy accidentally overheard a conversation last month between a murder suspect and his attorney.

Lt. Bruce McDowell, a jail administrator, said his staff is studying alternatives to intercoms, such as windows or video cameras, that would let guards monitor visitors for security reasons without violating the state law guaranteeing lawyer-client confidentiality.

The staff will present the results of their study to Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch in mid-September, McDowell said.

The study began after a deputy in the jail’s control center switched on an intercom monitor and overheard 10 seconds of conversation between murder suspect Gregory Scott Smith and his lawyers in late April. 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 near Simi Valley.

On Wednesday, Deputy Augustine Quintero testified that he inadvertently monitored a conversation between Smith and one of his two public defenders.

The Sheriff’s Department is conducting an internal investigation of the incident.

Officials in the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office say they do not know what Quintero overheard and do not want to know because it could jeopardize the case.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Department has installed protective caps over intercom switches in the jail control room. The caps must be pried off the control panel before the intercoms can be switched on, McDowell said.