Judge refuses to drop charges over recorded calls

BOSTON (AP) - A judge has refused to dismiss charges against a Massachusetts murder suspect after his lawyer claimed prosecutors violated attorney-client privilege by presenting recorded jail phone conversations to a grand jury.

Fall River Superior Court Judge D. Lloyd Macdonald on Friday rejected the motion made by a lawyer for Jonathan Niemic, who is charged with stabbing another man to death outside a soup kitchen in New Bedford.

The conversation was recorded while Niemic was in jail talking on the phone with his lawyer, Robert Griffin.

Griffin said a prosecutor's mistake in presenting the recordings to the grand jury amounted to "egregious prosecution misconduct."

Macdonald ruled that the content of the calls "could not have reasonably affected the grand jury."

Griffin said he's disappointed that the ruling means there will be no consequences for prosecutors for the mistake.