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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

 

The Government filed a motion for clarification (the “Motion”) regarding the 

Court’s Order (Doc. 345) on the Defendants’ cross-motion to obtain discovery and address 

privilege issues (Doc. 235) (the “Cross-Motion”). (Doc. 355) The Motion was fully briefed 

on January 4, 2019. (Docs. 409, 427) The Court’s ruling is as follows. 

 In the Motion, the Government seeks clarification as to whether (i) it can continue 

to review potentially privileged documents using the filter team process outlined in its 

earlier pleadings, and (ii) it must run a search of all documents in its possession and 

segregate the documents that contain any attorney or law firm names. (Doc. 355 at 2) The 

Government argues that continuing the filter team review is the most efficient means of 

moving the discovery process forward. (Doc. 355 at 3) The Defendants argue that the 

Court should prohibit the Government from continuing its filter team review because the 

Court’s Order denied the Government’s request to access privileged communication. (Doc. 

409 at 3) 

The Court finds that the Government should be allowed to continue using filter team 

United States of America, 

 

Plaintiff, 

vs. 

Michael Lacey, et al., 

Defendants. 

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No. CV-18-00422-PHX-SPL 

ORDER 

 

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review to advance the discovery process. The Government’s motion to resolve attorney 

client privilege issues specifically sought access to “emails that had been segregated by the 

filter team,” or identified as privileged by the filter team. (Doc. 195 at 10) The Court’s 

Order denied the Government’s request for access to these specific emails that had already 

been classified as privileged. The Court finds that filter team review of the Government’s 

remaining unprocessed discovery materials is necessary, and the filter team is the most 

efficient way to advance the Government’s discovery review. Accordingly, the Court 

orders that filter team review may continue, but the Government may not have access to 

any emails or documents that are identified as privileged or segregated by the filter team 

in accordance with the Court’s Order (Doc. 345). 

Second, the Motion states that the Government has already performed a search of 

its discovery materials with more than 265 terms related to attorney representation, and 

that it has taken necessary steps to segregate the privileged documents flagged through that 

search. (Doc. 355 at 3) The Government attached its list of search terms as an exhibit to 

its reply to the Cross-Motion. (Doc. 269-8) The Court finds the search described and 

already performed by the Government to be sufficient to reasonably identify any privileged 

documents present in its discovery materials. Specifically, the Court notes that the search 

terms listed in the exhibit contain approximately all of the attorney and law firm names 

pertinent to this case. Therefore, the Defendants’ request for the additional search in the 

Cross-Motion shall be denied. 

Accordingly, 

 IT IS ORDERED that Government’s Motion for Clarification (Doc. 355) 

is granted. 

 Dated this 22nd day of January, 2019. 

Honorable Steven P. Logan 

United States District Judge 

Case 2:18-cr-00422-DJH Document 445 Filed 01/22/19 Page 2 of 2