Judge spikes Hernandez’s claims over hacked jail calls

A federal judge has thrown out Aaron Hernandez’s claim that his civil rights were violated when an anonymous hacker accessed his recorded jailhouse phone calls three years ago while he was preparing for his first murder trial.

The ex-Patriot sued the Texas company whose server was breached, saying privileged communications with his former defense team may have been leaked to prosecutors who convicted him in 2015 of killing semipro football player Odin L. Lloyd. However, U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns stated in his decision, “... even if privileged calls were intercepted and recorded, Hernandez has alleged no facts demonstrating that his constitutional rights were impaired as a result.”

Stearns punted remaining claims of invasion of privacy, negligence and breach of contract back to Suffolk Superior Court to be resolved. It is where the civil action was originally filed in November. It’s also where testimony in Hernandez’s trial for the 2012 drive-by murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado enters its third week today.

Although the phone calls have not yet been raised at trial, Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Locke in December ordered Suffolk Sheriff Steve Tompkins’ office to turn over all records of Hernandez’s calls to his current counsel.

Securus Technologies Inc., which provides the phone service for Suffolk County House of Corrections inmates, argued in court filings Hernandez had no reasonable expectation of privacy. The breach of Securus’ call database occurred while Hernandez was awaiting trial for the 2013 shooting death of Lloyd in North Attleboro.

Tompkins’ office told the Herald calls between inmates and their attorneys are not recorded,

Stearns noted in his nine-page order that, “Hernandez has never received any information from Securus regarding the extent of the breach, which calls were accessed, or the identity of the hacker.”