Georgia Bar requests review of complaint against former Augusta DA, cites professional misconduct

Editor's Note: This article is the first in a two-part investigative series by The Augusta Chronicle looking into the constitutionality of actions taken by former District Attorney Natalie Paine and the Richmond County Sheriff's Office in Augusta, Georgia.

The State Bar of Georgia is accusing Columbia County Chief Assistant District Attorney Natalie Paine of lying under oath. The claim revives a 2021 professional conduct complaint that took place when Paine served as district attorney for the Augusta Judicial Circuit.

In a formal complaint filed by the Georgia State Bar Disciplinary Board on Jan. 14, 2021, the board alleged former Augusta District Attorney Natalie Paine obtained evidence that violated the rights of suspects in a 2017 double homicide case in Richmond County Superior Court. She then continued prosecuting the suspects using testimony obtained in unconstitutional interrogations and privileged, illegally recorded attorney-client conversations.

A review found Paine not responsible for the misconduct in the case, but the board recently demanded that decision be reconsidered. It stated she lied in her testimony, and is calling for her suspension.

Alleged mishandling of the 2017 case

Defense attorneys for the suspects accused in the 2017 double homicide State of Georgia v. William Joseph Krepps, Vaughn Austin Verdi, and Emily Stephens, sai there were numerous improper interrogation techniques deployed by the sheriff's office during the investigation.

Among those were failing to provide the suspects with their Miranda rights, interrogating the suspects without their lawyers and illegally recording privileged attorney-client conversations.

"Generally, the limits on the sheriff's office are more informal and typically come from the prosecutor's office," said Caren Morrison, associate professor of law at Georgia State University. "From research and what I've observed, law enforcement will do what it believes is going to make the strongest case but also is not going to make the prosecutor angry... tacitly or explicitly, the prosecutor had sort of indicated to them that was okay."

In these types of situations, the prosecution usually informally tells the law enforcement agency this isn't okay and the behavior changes, Morrison said.

"They seemed awfully comfortable with questioning people even if they wanted to talk to a lawyer or even if they had a lawyer, and I don't think that would have been the case if the prosecutor's office had sent a strong message that this is not okay," she said.

It became clear Paine had access to the privileged conversations generated by the sheriff's office during the discovery process, when the prosecution and defense exchange evidence. Included in the 107 CDs of evidence Paine's office turned over, were recordings of the attorney-client meetings.

In a letter to the Georgia Bar, Robert Homlar, who represented Verdi, said he received a "berating telephone call" from Paine on Sept. 26, 2018. He states he did not bring the issue to the Bar's attention, however, it appeared as though she believed he did.

The following transcription of her phone call was included in the letter:

"I didn’t even know until 4’oclock yesterday when the Public Defender’s office brought some CD back that there was any insinuation that the conversa-, any conversation between you and Verdi had ever been recorded,'" Paine said in the phone call. "...I am just trying to figure out where your information is coming from. Like... why you are under the impression that I did this, like, surreptitiously and why I was the one whose like masterminded some ... really half-assed effort to, to listen to, whatever you and Vaugh[n] Verdi said, which by the way, to to date, nobody from my office has listened to... Nothing? No?"

Paine testified before the State Board that she personally copied and distributed those CDs but that she did not look at any of the CDs to review the content. In court documents she said she was not aware that any of the CDs contained the audio recordings of the attorney-client conversations until she was served with a copy of the defense motion to dismiss the case.

On Nov. 14, 2018, Judge J. Wade Padgett, who serves the Augusta Judicial Circuit, granted a motion to suppress any information included in the attorney-client conferences in relation to the case, but did not dismiss the charges.

"In her initial responsive pleadings, DA Paine noted, '[i]n the instant case, the State has not heard the conversation that forms the basis of the complaint, making the issue moot,'" Padgett wrote. "That statement is simply wrong and supports the Court's conclusion that the State fails to see the larger issue presented in this case..."

Morrison, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York from 2001 to 2006, said she finds it hard to believe that Paine didn't listen to the audio.

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"Especially in a big case like a murder or double murder case, this is a case that was important to her," she said. "When you have recordings where possibly there's going to be the defendant making admissions of some kind, you're going to listen to it before you send it out because you don't want the defense to know more than you do – in terms of the evidence that you're turning over [to defense attorneys in discovery]."

Morrison pointed out prosecutors frequently listen to suspects' recorded jailhouse phone calls, a legal method of gaining access to unguarded conversations that can net valuable information. Since that information can be paramount to the case, the prosecutor would want to be sure to review before turning them over to defense, she said.

"I just find it hard to imagine that an experienced prosecutor like she was, would either not have listened to them at all to know what was on it, or would not have asked one of her investigators or somebody at the sheriff's department to listen to them before she copied them and sent them out," she said. "That just seems really unlikely."

On March 6, 2022, Special Master Patrick Head issued his report and recommendations, which stated the audio and video recording of the confidential conversations was “outrageous,” but Paine was not responsible for violating any of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct because she did not know the conversations were recorded and, as she testified in the hearing, did not review the contents of the CDs she copied and distributed.

Head said district attorneys should not be held accountable for law enforcement’s mistakes.

“...To hold otherwise would put every defense attorney, prosecutor, or even civil trial attorneys in jeopardy of facing disciplinary proceedings for the actions of others over whom they have no control," he wrote.

The case was dismissed, but less than a month later the State Bar of Georgia Disciplinary Review Board made a request for review of special master Head’s report. The Board wrote that his findings were “clearly erroneous,” according to court documents.

Paine accused of lying in her testimony

The State Bar of Georgia stated Paine lied twice during the disciplinary process when testified that she had no knowledge of the recordings of privileged conversations and she was not involved in the transport of the defendants from the jail to the sheriff’s office, according to court documents.

Having served as the district attorney and previously as assistant district attorney in the Augusta Judicial Circuit, the board asserted Paine served as a legal advisor for the sheriff’s office and visited its Criminal Investigation Division on a daily basis. Therefore, she knew that all conversations in the CID interview rooms were audio and video recorded by law enforcement.

“[Paine] watched “thousands of hours” of videos of recordings made in CID interview rooms,” according to court documents.

The State Bar requested Head’s findings be reviewed and that the Supreme Court of Georgia impose a sanction of a public reprimand.

The case will go before the court for final decision. The Supreme Court's decision does not have to be unanimous.

Justice Michael P. Boggs, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, is currently serving alongside Paine on Gov. Brian Kemp’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

The Augusta Chronicle reached out to Paine for comment via phone call and text message, but has not received a response.

In April 2021, the Georgia legislature created the Columbia County Judicial Circuit and Bobby Christine was appointed the new district attorney for Columbia County.

Paine was hired by Christine and currently serves as Chief Assistant District Attorney.

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“What you’ve asked about is an HR matter and I don’t speak about HR matters publicly," Christine said during an interview with The Augusta Chronicle on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Georgia bar requests review of complaint against former DA Natalie Paine