Judge rules whether to disqualify Jacksonville State Attorney's Office from Bridegan case

In the 16th hearing scheduled since Mario Fernandez Saldana’s defense team filed a motion to disqualify the 4th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office from the Jared Bridegan murder case, the judge ruled there will be no change of prosecutors.

Judge London Kite issued her ruling Monday but with some harsh words for the prosecutors' handling of confidential materials in the case.

Ordering additional guidelines, she said they can move forward with seeking the death penalty against Fernandez Saldana and his estranged wife Shanna Gardner in the murder-for-hire death of Gardner’s ex-husband Jared Bridegan in Jacksonville Beach. The 33-year-old was on his way home to St. Augustine after dropping off the twin children he shared custody with Gardner to her and Fernandez Saldana’s home in February 2022. He didn’t get far as he was ambushed on his regular route home.

Henry Arthur Tenon, 63, pleaded guilty to killing Bridegan. He confirmed being the triggerman, but Fernandez Saldana and Gardner are implicated as the masterminds behind the plot. Bridegan and Gardner had a contentious divorce and were still mired in legal matters and custody disputes.

Fernandez Saldana’s attorneys, who were later joined by Gardner’s, cited multiple privileged communications involving the defendants and their attorneys were uploaded by the state into a shared portal called NextPoint that several people had access to before being determined if they were confidential.

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According to the motion, "it is impossible for defense counsel to determine the scope and severity of the breach in confidentiality."

That state said it was limited to just one or two contested documents and was based on a third-party vendor’s brief oversight.

Murder plot Documents: Here's what Mario Fernandez Saldana told police in extensive interview after Jared Bridegan death

"The prosecutor, once notified, observed the oversight quickly, and consistent with her ethical duties, contacted the defense teams to alert them to the oversight and immediately disabled the platform to ensure none of the emails or the text were reviewed by anyone," according to the state’s response. "No one from the prosecution team or the State Attorney’s Office reviewed any privileged emails or texts."

Throughout the defense continued to argue the integrity of the judicial process has been compromised. The state continued to argue there was no malfeasance involved and prosecutors have worked thousands of hours on this case that no one could replace.

Had the State Attorney’s Office been removed from the case, the governor would have assigned a new circuit.

What did the judge say in ruling against Shanna Gardner and Mario Fernandez Saldana?

Kite explained her decision to both sides over several minutes.

“First let me say that the weight of this statement is not lost on me," she said. "… For the defense, this court recognizes that attorney-client privilege is one of the oldest and most sacred privileges.”

She specifically discussed the two documents in question, a timeline and text messages. For the timeline, she said there’s no evidence the state opened it or intends to use it. Therefore prejudice could not be substantiated. She said the text messages do not bear the hallmarks of attorney-client privilege.

But Kite said the state’s handling of the materials “left it all open to a high probability that attorney-client privilege information would be exposed both to law enforcement and the state without proper review.”

She said that’s not necessarily misconduct. However, “It was poor judgment.”

The court found it wasn’t substantial misconduct because the state, when alerted, acted appropriately by disabling and shutting down restricted access to the platform, Kite said.

“As I write in the order, I’m very solid that while it did not rise to the level of disqualifcation, it does warrant an alternative,” she said.

Dismissal would be inappropriate, the judge stated. The option that the court is left with, she said, is to suppress the timeline and text messages from the case.

Moving forward, Kite said it also will be necessary to conduct a thorough case management discovery hearing with both sides.

“What was happening before these issues were brought to the court is not acceptable,” the judge said.

She scheduled the next hearings for May 15 and May 24.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville judge rules prosecutors can stay on Jared Bridegan trial