Inmate pleads guilty to threatening attorney, secretary in jail phone call
A jail inmate accused of threatening his defense attorney and the law firm’s secretary pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to serve three years on probation.
John Quentin Lazear agreed Thursday to plead guilty to one count of terroristic threats after making threatening comments against attorney James Jeffries and his secretary during a phone call from the Washington County jail last year.
Lazear, 39, of Houston, is already serving 15 to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty in January to multiple felony drug charges in three unrelated cases, so the probation will run concurrent with his incarceration. He is currently housed at SCI-Camp Hill prison in Cumberland County and appeared through videoconferencing for his sentencing hearing before Judge Brandon Neuman in Washington County Court of Common Pleas.
Prosecutors dropped more serious charges in the terroristic threats case, including wiretapping, in exchange for his guilty plea. He was accused of conspiring to eavesdrop on Jefferies during what was supposed to be a private phone call last May between Jeffries and Kimberly Ann Furmanek, who was Lazear’s former defense attorney turned love interest.
Furmanek, 35, of Waynesburg, is still facing felony charges of intercept communications and conspiracy in connection with the case. She is accused of holding two cellphones together to transmit what was supposed to be a private conversation between her and Jeffries to Lazear, who was listening in on a jail phone. The wiretapping charge was filed since the Washington County jail records phone calls and Jeffries did not know Lazear was on the other line.
Furmanek is scheduled for a plea hearing before Neuman at 2 p.m. June 7 to decide whether or not she wants to go to trial. She has been free on $25,000 bond since charges were filed June 16.