Luigi Mangione, the accused health care CEO killer, in State Supreme...

Luigi Mangione, the accused health care CEO killer, in State Supreme Court in Manhattan earlier this year. Credit: Louis Lanzano

Lawyers for Luigi Mangione, the Maryland man charged with fatally shooting a health care CEO on a midtown sidewalk, allege the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office broke federal privacy laws when it subpoenaed the accused killer’s medical insurance records, according to a brief filed Thursday.

In the court filing, Mangione's defense team says veteran prosecutor Joel Seidemann misled Aetna Insurance, the defendant's provider, to believe the company could be held in contempt of court if it failed to provide information on the records by May 23.

Mangione, 27, faces a charge of murder as an act of terrorism and other charges for allegedly killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December outside a Manhattan hotel. He’s also charged in Manhattan federal court with stalking and murder in connection with Thompson's death, for which Attorney General Pam Bondi said she would pursue the death penalty.

In Thursday’s letter to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro, Mangione attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo writes that Aetna turned over more than 120 pages of sensitive medical records in response to the prosecutors' request for Mangione’s information.

"Because the District Attorney has taken possession of, and at least partially reviewed, Luigi Mangione's confidential doctor-patient privileged and HIPAA protected medical records, and further because the District Attorney misused the subpoena process to obtain these protected records," Friedman Agnifilo writes, "this court should impose an appropriate sanction after conducting a full evidentiary hearing to uncover the extent and nature of the significant privilege and HIPAA violation intentionally caused by the prosecutors."

The defense lawyer states that Seidemann allegedly instructed Aetna to provide the information directly to his office, sidestepping a court-ordered subpoena that would have alerted Mangione’s legal team that prosecutors were trying to access his medical file.

"By doing this, the People removed the court from overseeing this process and ensuring that the District Attorney did not come into possession of privileged or HIPAA-protected medical information," Mangione's attorney wrote in the letter to the judge, using the acronym for the law that keeps medical records private — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

 "With the court intentionally removed from the subpoena process," Friedman Agnifilo's continues, "the People downloaded privileged and HIPAA materials it should never have possessed in the first place and reviewed them." 

In April, the defense attorneys filed court papers accusing the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office of violating Mangione's right to counsel by listening in on a recorded phone call in the Metropolitan Detention Center between the Ivy League-educated defendant and one of his lawyers.

Late Thursday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they would respond to the defense letter in court papers.

According to Friedman Agnifilo's latest court filing, Seidemann sent the subpoena requesting Mangione’s account number and the length of time he had been covered by Aetna, but the insurer responded by sending 120 pages of records — the accused killer’s entire medical file.

In the subpoena, Seidemann said that Aetna would be held in contempt if the company did not appear in court on May 23 with the requested information, according to Friedman Agnifilo's letter, which also called the maneuver "an abuse of power," adding that the information is irrelevant to Mangione’s murder case.

No trial date has been set.

The defense team's letter asks the judge to order prosecutors to turn over all communications between Aetna and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office regarding the case.  The lawyer also asked Carro to hold a hearing to determine how and why prosecutors obtained the records and whether they violated state law by filing the subpoena.

Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV Credit: Newsday

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