ST. LOUIS • Prosecutors dropped charges Monday against a woman from St. Charles whose case is linked to a controversial cellphone surveillance technology.
Wilqueda Lillard, 22, had pleaded guilty to 14 charges in June and agreed to testify against her three co-defendants, who were accused of robbing seven people of cash and cellphones in a two-hour crime spree the evening of Oct. 28, 2013.
But this month, prosecutors dropped charges against the three others a day before a police Intelligence Unit officer was to be questioned about whether a cell site simulator, often called by the brand name StingRay, was used in the case.
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Megan Beesley, a public defender for one of the men, told the Post-Dispatch that she believed prosecutors dropped charges rather than allow information about the StingRay cell site simulator to be aired.
A cell site simulator can mimic a cell system tower, or screen data flowing through it, allowing a cellphone to be tracked by authorities. Civil libertarians complain that the hardware amounts to a warrantless search of countless properties.
Agreements between police and the FBI uncovered in other cities show that police vow not to reveal any information about the technology to the public, other agencies or in court documents or proceedings without the FBI’s written approval. In some cities around the country, prosecutors have dropped cases rather than allow discussion of StingRay use.
Prosecutors denied that the dismissal had to do with the defense motion but declined to explain, citing rules about discussing closed cases.
In the chambers of St. Louis Circuit Judge Margaret Neill on Monday, Assistant Circuit Attorney Tanja Engelhardt also refused to discuss why the other cases had been dismissed.
When Lillard lawyer Terence Niehoff mentioned the StingRay, Engelardt accused him of making assumptions about things that “haven’t been litigated.”
She later said that she couldn’t argue with Niehoff because he was making assumptions.
Neill then granted Niehoff’s motion to withdraw the guilty plea.
After the hearing, Niehoff said his argument was that prosecutors failed to disclose the StingRay, the use of which might have been illegal.
If it was, all the evidence obtained from its use was also tainted, he said.
And Lillard did not know that when she pleaded guilty, he said.
Niehoff said prosecutors now had two options: appeal or drop the case.
Engelardt declined to comment after the hearing. Lauren Trager, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors are reviewing the case to determine the next course of action.
Later Monday, Niehoff was notified that prosecutors had filed a memo dismissing the case.
Lillard’s co-defendants started their spree in the 800 block of South Second Street before committing more robberies at 17th and Chestnut streets and North 14th and Carr streets, charging documents claim.
Investigators traced at least one of the victims’ phones to Room 210 of the America’s Best Inn in Caseyville.
Beesley and two other defense lawyers became curious about the trace after reading in a report that a “proven law enforcement technique” had led them to the motel.
