Judge excludes key evidence in Clenney computer hacking case

A Florida judge on Wednesday excluded key evidence in the so-called in a computer hacking case involving OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney and her parents, ruling that prosecutors violated attorney-client privilege by gaining access to private conversations between the Clenneys and their lawyers.

The burglary case is separate from the second-degree murder case of Courtney Clenney for fatally stabbing her boyfriend, Christian Obumseli. Clenney claims she killed Obumseli in self-defense in their Miami apartment in 2022.

Investigators came across the group messages while investigating Obumseli’s death, leading prosecutors to charge Clenney and her parents with unauthorized computer access.

Clenney and her parents, Kim and Deborah Clenney, are accused of trying to gain access to Obumsela’s laptop after Clenney was arrested with her help from prison. In the ruling, Judge Laura Shearon Cruz granted the Clenney family’s request to suppress communications evidence that formed a large part of the state’s case. Cruz’s two-page order did not address a related motion to dismiss the charges outright, but is expected to do so in a more detailed ruling.

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The Clenney family alleges in court documents that Courtney and Obumseli shared a laptop that law enforcement left behind after searching the couple’s apartment for evidence. Courtney’s parents retrieved it from the apartment and, while Courtney was in jail, discussed ways to unlock the laptop in group messages, according to a defense motion to have the case dismissed. Courtney eventually shared a four-digit passcode and “once it was determined that the laptop could be accessed, it was locked and no files were accessed or viewed,” the defense motion states.

Meanwhile, law enforcement obtained a search warrant to access Courtney and her parents’ iCloud accounts, which contained group text messages discussing the laptop. The Clenneys’ lawyers say the group text messages not only helped law enforcement track down and seize the laptop from the defense expert’s home, but also led to burglary charges against the Clenneys.

A key point of contention was whether Courtney’s lawyers also represented her parents and whether an attorney-client relationship existed between the lawyers and the parents. Courtney’s lawyers argued that the attorney-client relationship began immediately following Ombusela’s death on April 3, 2022, and was memorialized in a written and signed collaboration agreement on September 22, 2022, which was provided to the court.

“The communications sought to be excluded by the parties are protected by attorney-client privilege and/or work product privilege. That privilege was violated, although perhaps unintentionally, when the communications were read by prosecutors in this case,” Judge Cruz wrote in her order. “The proper remedy for this breach of privilege is to exclude the communications from being used as evidence in this case.”