Jared Bridegan murder: Ruling to be made on whether State Attorney’s Office can stay on case

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The woman accused in the murder-for-hire plot of her ex-husband is due in court.

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Attorneys for Shanna Gardner want the State Attorney’s Office off the case over alleged mishandling of what they believe are privileged communications.

The judge has yet to issue a ruling on the motion from attorneys for both Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez Saldana to have the State Attorney’s Office disqualified from the case, and that ruling could come Thursday afternoon.

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Gardner and her estranged husband Fernandez Saldana are charged with the murder of Jared Bridegan, Gardner’s ex-husband.

Lawyers for Gardner claim prosecutors intentionally violated “attorney-client privilege” by gaining access to electronic documents recovered from Gardner’s phones, computers and iCloud that should have been protected under that privilege.

But, the prosecution argues that 2 documents in those communications should be admissible as evidence.

Read: Putnam County Jail Director placed on administrative leave during internal audit, sheriff says

At a hearing last month, the judge explained to attorneys the standard that must be met regarding the attorney-client privilege matter.

“The case law is that there has to be if the state inadvertently gets information that is, in fact, attorney-client privilege, some type of mitigating scenario by the State of Florida,” the judge explained.

The evidentiary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday.

Read: Jared Bridegan’s ex-wife, accused in murder-for-hire plot to kill him, seeks dismissal of charges

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