SFGate.com by Bob Egelko, Sept 27, 2013
San Francisco. An East Bay divorce lawyer pleaded guilty Friday to planting a secret listening device in the car of a client’s ex-husband, using a private investigator who has admitted setting up drunken driving arrests of men involved in divorce cases.
Mary Nolan‘s admission to five federal felony charges wound up a series of criminal prosecutions stemming from disclosures of private sting operations in Contra Costa County that have been nicknamed “dirty DUIs.”
Investigator Christopher Butler said he designed the scheme to tarnish men facing divorce proceedings by hiring women to approach them, have drinks at a bar and then ask the men to follow them in their cars. Butler would then call police or 911 to report a suspected drunken driver.
Butler is serving an eight-year prison sentence. Officers from four Bay Area police agencies have also been convicted.
The charges against Nolan, 61, were not connected to the DUI scheme. But Butler has testified that Nolan hired him to install the listening device in the car, the basis of her guilty plea to illegally intercepting communications. She also pleaded guilty to four counts of tax evasion for the years 2005 through 2008.
Federal guidelines for the charges recommend a sentence of 30 to 37 months in prison. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer has scheduled sentencing in January. Nolan, who had an office in San Ramon, has surrendered her license to practice law.