Former asst. county attorney arrested, charged with eavesdropping..

staugustine.com

Former Assistant County Attorney Paras Desai was arrested by St. Johns County Sheriff's Office detectives Monday afternoon and charged with eavesdropping and eight counts of illegal interception of communication, all third-degree felonies.

Desai, 35, of St. Augustine, posted $8,000 bond about 4 p.m. today and was released.

A warrant was issued for his arrest last week, but Desai turned himself in to Sheriff's Detective George H. Harrigan Jr. on Monday, according to booking and offense reports.

The narrative in the warrant said, "The defendant intentionally intercepted oral communications without the consent of the victim. (He) secretly recorded a phone conversation with (county Environmental Division Director) Jan Brewer. The victim had no knowledge of the recording and did not give her consent."

All the intercepted communications -- essentially, recorded phone conversations -- that Desai is charged with allegedly occurred within the County Administration Building at 500 Sebastian View Way, the warrant said.

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Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts

thesmokinggun.com

AUGUST 23--The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records.

A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media” The DEA’s need for full-time linguists specializing in Ebonics is detailed in bid documents related to the agency’s mid-May issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) covering the provision of as many as 2100 linguists for the drug agency’s various field offices. Answers to the proposal were due from contractors on July 29.

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