Prosecutors seized his legal notes. Now he wants a Baltimore judge to throw out his rape case.

The message from Dwayne Elliott was urgent: Correctional officers had searched his cell at the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center and taken documents that outlined the evidence against him.

His attorney, Natalie Finegar, sent him the records so he could review the material and take notes for when they met to discuss legal strategy. Prosecutors made a copy of at least one document.

Finegar is now asking a judge to throw out the case, arguing that her client’s constitutional rights were violated.

“I don’t see how we can function effectively, in any way, shape or form, in assisting our clients to prepare for trial, if we cannot have private communication,” Finegar said. “I have never seen this before, and everybody I have spoken to is shocked that this has happened.”

The issue came up after Elliott talked about aspects of his case on a recorded phone call and in a message he sent through a jail-issued tablet.

Elliott, 57, of Oliver, is charged with rape, assault and sex offenses. He’s accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl at an apartment on East Lanvale Street on July 26, 2025.

On New Year’s Day, Elliott called his sister after reviewing the evidence against him.

“You cannot have sex with a person without leaving some type of DNA,” Elliott said on the call.

He also claimed the teen had tested positive for COVID-19, while he did not when screened after his arrest. Elliott made the same assertion in a message to the girl’s aunt and professed that he was being framed.

After learning of those communications, Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Render issued a subpoena to the warden for all of Elliott’s written documentation, correspondence, letters and photographs — except for communications with his attorney.

Correctional officers searched Elliott’s cell, seized documents and turned them over to prosecutors.

Among the materials was one document that contained a handwritten note from Elliott that read, “Patient had COV-19.”

Render later acknowledged making a copy of that document and consulting with Cynthia Middlestadt, a forensic nurse examiner at Mercy Medical Center. She said she did not write the note.

But Render argues that Elliott waived attorney-client privilege because he openly talked about his case.

A spokesperson for the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office, Emily Witty, declined to comment because the case is pending.

Circuit Judge Yolanda A. Tanner is set to consider the issue on April 13 at a motion hearing.

Brian Shefferman, president of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys’ Association, said prosecutors routinely request jail calls.

He said there’s no expectation of privacy because people are warned that they’re recorded. But Shefferman described the move to seek documentation as unusual.

“I don’t recall a time when they’ve issued a subpoena like this for essentially an inmate’s papers,” Shefferman said. “It’s almost inevitable that it’s going to include stuff between lawyer and client.”

“How can you expect the jail authorities to distinguish?” he added.

Prosecutors have a tremendous amount of power to essentially spy on those who are incarcerated and awaiting trial, said Patrick Seidel, who worked in the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office from 2014 to 2022.

Assistant state’s attorneys have an interest in ensuring witnesses are not manipulated or encouraged to give false testimony, he said.

But Seidel said proper protocols need to be put in place. The U.S. Department of Justice, he noted, uses teams that review records and take out documents containing attorney-client privileged information before they go to prosecutors.

People are supposed to have a meaningful right to prepare a defense. Prosecutors would never send a subpoena to their home if they were out on bail, Seidel said.

“It’s outrageous,” said Seidel, who’s now a defense attorney in Baltimore. “It sends a chilling effect on any incarcerated defendant.”

Those who are accused of committing crimes, he said, still have rights.