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Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the trial of an OnlyFans model accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death bickered in court on Thursday accusing each other of leaking information to manipulate the media.
Florida prosecutors asked Miami-Dade Judge Laura Shearon Cruz to find a remedy as celebrity website TMZ prepares to air a show featuring attorneys, witnesses, and defendant Courtney Clenney’s parents — who were arrested this week in Texas for hacking into victim Christian Obumseli’s laptop after his death.
As CrimeOnline reported, prosecutors said they uncovered a group text that included Clenney’s attorneys discussing how to figure out Obumseli’s pin number to get into the computer, which is illegal in Florida without permission from the owner.
Prosecutors said at least one attorney advised Deborah Lyn and Kim Clenney not to hack into the laptop, but that didn’t stop defense attorney Frank Prieto from accusing prosecutors of “besmirch(ing) his reputation,” the Miami Herald reported. After Thursday’s hearing, Clenney’s other attorney, Sabrina Puglisi, complained about investigators “looking at private text messages.”
Neither Prieto nor Puglisi were charged in the laptop hacking incident, although Courtney Clenney was, along with her parents.
The 27-year-old Obumseli was stabbed to death in April 2022 in the couple’s luxury condo in Miami. Clenney, 28, was eventually arrested in Hawaii and brought back to Florida to stand trial on a charge of second degree manslaughter.
The release of various videos, the 911 call on the day Obumseli was stabbed, and information in other texts between Obumseli and Clenney have marred the course of the trial from the start, but it was the TMZ program that particularly incensed prosecutors.
“TMZ aired parts of these interviews as part of a teaser, so the damage has been done,” said Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Khalil Quinan.
Prosecutors could have but did not ask Cruz to issue a gag order. Instead, they asked her to find a remedy. Cruz said she would rule by Tuesday.
