JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A ruling on whether the State Attorney's Office Fourth Judicial Circuit will be disqualified from the murder trial of the people accused of killing Jared Bridegan, a father of four from St. Johns County, was not reached on Thursday. Instead, Judge London Kite said she will make her ruling on May 13.
The attorneys for both of Bridegan's accused killers - Mario Fernandez and Shanna Gardner - each want the entire State Attorney's Office (SAO) Fourth Judicial Circuit disqualified from the case because they claim Assistant State Attorney Christina Stifler reviewed attorney-client privileged information in the course of reviewing potential evidence in the murder trial.
Inside the courtroom at the Duval County court, Fernandez's lead defense attorney Jesse Dreicer said that the SAO sent him an email on April 29 which included an email originally dated June 30, 2023 between Stifler and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Agent Lindsey Butler, which was then forwarded to other members of the SAO.
The argument that Dreicer made in court Thursday was that there's no way the court can determine if SAO members did or did not read the document in question and that would lead to an appearance of impropriety and should lead to disqualification of the entire SAO's Fourth Judicial Circuit.
The state claims that the documents were not read by Stifler and that the SAO would never purposefully review attorney-client privileged information. Prosecutors conceded that specific evidence in the case could be suppressed by the judge, but continued to argue that the entire SAO should not be disqualified.
On May 13, Kite will issue her ruling in terms of disqualification as well as hear arguments from Gardner's attorneys related to her motion for bond.