Attorney accused of wiretapping pleads guilty to lesser charges
news@greenecountymessenger.com
A lawyer accused of conspiring to have an inmate at the Washington County jail eavesdrop on another attorney during what was supposed to be a private phone call pleaded guilty Wednesday to lesser charges.
Kimberly Ann Furmanek, who was facing felony wiretapping charges in connection with the May 2022 incident, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and was immediately sentenced by Judge Brandon Neuman to serve 12 months on probation as part of the plea bargain.
Furmanek, 35, of Richhill Township, appeared briefly in Neuman’s courtroom in the Washington County Courthouse to announce her plea, which her defense attorney, Adam Yarussi, said will hopefully allow her to move forward more than a year after being charged.
“It’s been kind of going on for a while and she just wanted to put this behind her and move on with her life,” Yarussi said.
Furmanek had developed a romantic relationship with John Quentin Lazear, who was an inmate at the jail, while she was representing him on drug charges in late 2021. But after Furmanek was removed from his case, she and Lazear hatched a plan so the inmate could eavesdrop on a private phone call she was having with his new defense attorney, James Jeffries.
In the May 6, 2022, conversation, Furmanek used two cellphones – one to call Lazear in the jail and the other to speak with Jeffries – and placed them next to each other so he could listen to the conversation. Since the jail audio records all phone calls with inmates when speaking with anyone who isn’t their attorney, the conversation was recorded without Jeffries’ knowledge.
Furmanek and Lazear were charged the following month after investigators reviewed the phone call and spoke to Jeffries, who told them he did not know Lazear was on the other line or that the conversation was recorded on the jail line. Lazear, who is now serving 15 to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to multiple felony drug charges in three unrelated cases, pleaded guilty to one count of terroristic threats in April for threatening Jeffries and his law firm’s secretary in a different phone call. He was sentenced by Neuman to serve probation while incarcerated.
When contacted by a reporter Wednesday afternoon, Jeffries said he was unaware of the plea deal, but happy that the court case is now over.
“I’m glad that she put this episode behind her and I hope she moves on and makes better choices, both professionally and personally,” Jeffries said.
It’s not known what may happen to Furmanek’s ability to practice law in the future. While no disciplinary proceedings have been made public thus far through the state’s Disciplinary Board, that could happen now with Furmanek’s plea to the misdemeanor charges. Yarussi said he couldn’t predict what might happen to Furmanek’s law license, but said she has been volunteering at the Greene County public defender’s office as part of a plea deal requirement to perform 150 hours of community service.
“She really just wanted to put this behind her and continue to practice law,” Yarussi said.
Furmanek had just started a new job with the Westmoreland County public defender’s office last June when she was charged in the wiretapping case. She previously worked in the Greene County public defender’s office and later worked in Washington County’s conflict counsel office until she was terminated in December 2021 for unknown reasons.