JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Late Monday evening, the attorneys for Shanna Gardner filed a motion to have the indictment against her dismissed.
Gardner is accused of conspiring to kill her ex-husband, Jared Bridegan, in February 2022. She is currently facing a first-degree murder charge in his death. Gardner's second husband, Mario Fernandez-Saldana, is also facing a first-degree murder charge.
Investigators say Bridegan was killed in a murder-for-hire plot after he dropped off his two oldest children at Gardner's Jacksonville Beach home.
In the legal filings, the attorneys for Gardner "request this Honorable Court dismiss her Indictment, or in the alternative, disqualify the State Attorney's Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida and exclude at all pretrial hearings and trial the use of all iMessages sent by Ms. Gardner, regardless of source. The grounds for this Motion are the State's willful, knowing and intentional violation of the attorney-client privilege and egregious disregard of a court-ratified agreement to use a 'taint team.'"
Gardner's attorneys allege in the 24-page filing that concerns were raised in February 2023 that attorney-client privileged communications were downloaded from Gardner's Google drive, iCloud and Apple devices. They also allege the agent from the United States Secret Service was ill-equipped to serve as a "taint team" and had no training and was given no protocol to follow.
The filing further states that in April 2023, a detective with the Jacksonville Beach Police Department "presumably in association with ASA (Assistant State Attorney) Stifler obtained a warrant" to get Gardner's Google data and made no mention of the agreement to use a taint team to remove attorney-client communications. The filing alleges that the secret service agent in charge of filtering the iCloud material, would reach out to Stifler to get legal advice in regards to what was privileged if he was unsure.
Gardner's attorneys allege "ASA Stifler was directly informed of the contents of the privileged communications," and the conduct was "patently improper." The motion goes on to say "law enforcement also engaged in outrageous government conduct in efforts to circumvent the parties' court-ratified agreement and the 'taint team's' review of Ms. Gardner's iMessages before they would see them."
Gardner and Fernandez have both plead not guilty. A hearing over contested evidence and whether or not the State Attorney's Office Fourth Judicial Circuit can stay on the case is expected to occur on Thursday.
Editor's note: The YouTube video below is from a previous newscast.
