Lawsuit Seeks To Have Murder Charges Dropped In Palm Springs Case

A high profile New York attorney and a defendant awaiting trial for the 2008 murder of Clifford Lambert slapped the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office with a $240 million lawsuit.

The 8-page lawsuit, obtained exclusively by KESQ, was served to Rod Pacheco’s office in Riverside Thursday stems from alleged civil rights infractions against 27-year-old Daniel Garcia and his attorneys.

Read Lawsuit Filed Against Riverside County District Attorney’s Office

Garcia and his attorneys claim for over a year, the DA’s office and its investigations knowingly listened to, reproduced and distributed privileged jailhouse phone calls between Garcia and his lawyers which is a felony.

In court Friday, Deputy District Attorney Lisa DiMaria, who is prosecuting the case, told a judge today during a hearing in the criminal case that she was served with the lawsuit today. “I have never listened to an attorney-client phone calls,” DiMaria said. “I never will. I never have and I won’t do so in the future.”

The right for a defendant to speak with a lawyer in private without being recorded or listened to is found in the Fifth Amendment.

In the lawsuit Garcia asked the county to drop the murder charges and immediately release him from jail.

Miguel Bustamante, 27, and David Replogle, 61, are on trial right now for the murder

A co-defendant, Craig McCarthy, entered into a plea deal last month and is expected to take the witness stand .

Also charged in the killing and awaiting trial along with Garcia is 28-year-old Kaushal Niroula.

This morning a riverside county judge will hear from Garcia in regards to these allegations.

We’ll have a crew inside the courtroom.