David Fish Defense Records Detail Handling of Attorney Communications in Orange County Investigation
Nov 4, 2026
California, United States Nov 4, 2026 (Issuewire.com) - A defense motion in David Fish's Orange County criminal case describes investigators' access to communications with attorneys and challenges the procedures used to identify and separate potentially privileged material.
The motion, dated November 18, 2025, in case No. 24CF1948 sought dismissal for alleged outrageous government conduct. Its supporting declaration and exhibits reproduce investigative and forensic report excerpts concerning seized emails and materials supplied by Fish's former attorney, Robert Stroj.
An investigative report excerpt describes a February 2023 incident in which Investigator Mike Reilly printed an email from Fish to attorneys Martin Brill and Michael Roofian before noticing its attorney-client privilege heading. Reilly reported informing Deputy District Attorney Noor Hasan, who was not shown the email. He also reported that a special master review was sought and that he stopped reviewing other emails at that time.
The exhibits describe a collection of approximately 29,000 emails and documents. A later keyword search isolated material for special master review. A forensic report excerpt states that the special master tagged 788 items as privileged and that the laboratory removed them, together with other previously identified exclusions.
The defense contended that additional protected communications nevertheless remained accessible. That contention is an allegation in the defense papers, not an established judicial finding.
The supporting declaration by attorney Melissa A. Weinberger separately describes investigators' communications with Stroj. According to the declaration, on August 2, 2023, Stroj forwarded a document described as "Dave's summary." Weinberger identifies it as a statement prepared for Fish's criminal defense attorneys. The declaration also recounts communications about whether investigators could accept and review materials from Stroj.
These records provide a documentary basis for examining when potential privilege was identified, what screening occurred, and how material supplied by a former attorney was handled. They do not, by themselves, resolve disputed questions of privilege or establish misconduct.
The Orange County Superior Court's online case information, reviewed October 28, 2026, listed Fish's case as closed and all 12 displayed felony counts as dismissed on May 15, 2026. Contemporaneous reporting described undisclosed settlements with prosecutors. The online entry does not establish the reasons for dismissal or a finding concerning the conduct alleged in the motion.
Issuing firm
McCune Law Group
Attorney: Cory R. Weck
mccunelawgroup.com
Media contact
Soraya Caldwell
Director of Communications
The Fifth Wall
[email protected]
Source :McCune Law Group
This article was originally published by IssueWire. Read the original article here.
More News
Indonesia’s Prabowo sacks chief of staff as wiretap scandal tests alliance with Widodo
In one of the biggest scandals to hit the Indonesian National Police (Polri), President Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday sacked his chief of staff, former national police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo, after his arrest for allegedly wiretapping the president, cabinet ministers, politicians and journalists. The government raised the stakes on Wednesday when presidential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi addressed reporters in Jakarta, warning that the surveillance could amount to “treason” and endanger state...
Tencent unveils Hy4 as open-weight AI race with DeepSeek, Z.ai, Alibaba heats up
Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has rolled out its latest flagship artificial intelligence model, Hy4, seeking to challenge top open-weight rivals with enhanced agentic capabilities built to power its enterprise software ecosystem. Released on Wednesday, the large language model (LLM) introduced visual understanding for the first time. Hy4 could process images, analyse complex charts and conduct visual mathematical reasoning, according to the Shenzhen-based company. Tencent said the release...
Malaysia’s debut Hyrox fitness event in beer sponsorship row
Organisers of Malaysia’s first Hyrox fitness competition agreed on Wednesday to exclude the event from a partnership with beer brand Carlsberg after Muslim entrants threatened to pull out and authorities warned they would withhold approval over the alcohol sponsorship. The tie-up had angered some participants who said it conflicted with both their faith and the event’s promotion of fitness, highlighting tensions over alcohol marketing in Muslim-majority Malaysia. “We understand why this has...
Why North Korea’s Kim sees no need for another Trump ‘photo-op summit’
Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister on Wednesday rejected holding any further talks with the United States, days after the FBI accused North Korea of stealing more than US$6 billion from a cryptocurrency exchange and Washington launched a new round of sanctions aimed at Pyongyang. Analysts say the latest developments have all but killed off the chances of another Trump-Kim summit, despite the US president’s continued warm words for North Korea’s supreme leader and apparent openness to meeting him...
Crash landing for K-dramas? Waning output threatens genre’s future
Twelve South Korean industry groups urged the government on Wednesday to invest in and support production of Korean television dramas, known as K-dramas, warning that the country’s production base risked collapse. K-dramas have been hugely popular globally, but the number produced has fallen about 30 per cent from 141 titles in 2022, according to the Korea Drama Production Association. Three domestic broadcast networks cut drama output from 91 titles in 2012 to 32 in 2023, and some...
Malaysian police arrest woman over viral shopping mall brawl
Malaysian police have arrested a 25-year-old woman who allegedly caused a disturbance by assaulting visitors at a shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur, with the suspect admitting her involvement in the incident. Dang Wangi OCPD Assistant Commissioner Ahmad Azwan Amin Nordin said the local woman was arrested at about 5.40pm on Tuesday in Bandar Sri Damansara to assist in investigations. “Initial investigations found that the suspect admitted to being involved in the incident,” he said in a statement...
How One Country Became the Unlikely Crossroads of the Global A.I. Boom
In Malaysia, U.S. and Chinese tech giants are pouring billions into vast data centers, straining local resources and testing the limits of Washington’s restrictions on advanced chips.
Baidu’s new AI simulator gives robotaxis a crash course in rare road hazards
For autonomous vehicles, the hardest lessons to learn are the ones that can test the skills of even the most experienced human drivers: an errant cyclist darting through a red light, or an animal bolting into oncoming traffic from behind a corner. The Chinese tech giant Baidu has developed a new AI-driven simulator to prepare its Apollo robotaxis for just such rare but high-stakes road hazards, as the firm looks to gain an edge in the fast-growing self-driving taxi market. The system, Apollo...
Vietnam surpasses Indonesia on per-person GDP. Is Thailand next?
Vietnam’s average economic output per person is set to overtake Indonesia’s, according to the International Monetary Fund. Gross domestic product per capita, which provides a snapshot of a country’s standard of living, is projected to rise 8.9 per cent to US$5,259 in Vietnam this year – nearly double the figure a decade earlier and overtaking Indonesia’s US$5,153. This would also rank Vietnam fifth among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, behind Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia...
China’s new nightmare: a Japanese containment arc in the Indo-Pacific
Just weeks after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping invoked their countries’ World War II alliance at the White House, Keen Sword 27 turned symbolism into hardware. The 11-day exercise, which wrapped up on October 29, deployed US Marine NMESIS anti-ship launchers and MADIS air-defence systems to Yonaguni – Japan’s westernmost island, just 110km (70 miles) from Taiwan. Japan mobilised its new Type 25 missile, with a reported 1,000km range, from Kumamoto for the system’s...
Afghan Woman Is Among Dozens to Be Deported to Afghanistan
The Trump administration has arranged a flight to send dozens of Afghan immigrants back to Afghanistan, despite the risk of persecution by the Taliban.
Australian Court Hears Challenge to Social Media Ban
Reddit and an Australian digital advocacy group are claiming a law that restricts children younger than 16 from popular platforms infringes on their constitutional rights.
YOUR NEWS, OUR NETWORK.
Do you have Great News you want to tell the world?
Be it updates about your business or your community, you can make sure that it’s heard by submitting your story to our network reaching hundreds of news sites across 6 verticals.