A Louisiana attorney has been arrested for illegally accessing and disclosing confidential court documents, said Sheriff Steve Prator.
After a thorough investigation involving search warrants served to email providers, digital forensic examinations, and in person interviews, Caddo Sheriff’s Detective Douglass Smith determined that during her brief time as a law clerk to Chief Judge Henry Brown, 46-year-old Trina Chu copied sensitive court documents from the Louisiana 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals files via a USB flash drive.
In July of 2018, Chu forwarded three confidential court documents to her personal email account. The documents concerned a case under consideration by the 2nd Circuit involving a judgement against her close friend Hanh Williams for over $460,000. Chu forwarded those documents directly to Williams.
After a review of the case by the Caddo Parish District Attorney's office, Det. Smith obtained an arrest warrant for Chu charging her with one count of RS 14:73.2\Offenses Against Intellectual Property (Felony) and one count of RS 14:73.12\Trespass Against State Computers (Felony) with a bond of $10,000 for each count.
On Tuesday, Chu was arrested by members of the CPSO Warrants Unit. She has been booked into Caddo Correctional Center.
