Case ends for former TennCare worker charged in custody battle

The state has closed its lengthy case against a former TennCare spokeswoman who was charged with wiretapping during a bitter custody battle between her husband and his ex-wife.

Marilyn T. Wilson, 34, has accepted pre-trial diversion in the case, which means the state will not prosecute the wiretapping charge if she follows certain requirements. The charge stemmed from Wilson’s alleged use of a state computer at her job to hack into the personal email account of Allen Baines and send fake messages in an attempt to discredit him.

Baines and his wife Regina were in a battle with Jerry and Marilyn Wilson over the custody of Regina and Jerry’s two children, a boy and a girl, both minors. Regina Baines is Jerry Wilson’s ex-wife; the couple separated in 2004.

Marilyn Wilson was charged with wiretapping in December [1] after allegations surfaced that she used “key-logging” spyware to hack into, and send threatening messages from, Baines’ email account.

Allen and Regina Baines filed a lawsuit [2] in November 2008 claiming the Wilsons concocted the fake emails in an attempt to discredit them and tip the court’s decision in their favor.

It came to light during the investigation that the IP address for one of the computers used to send one of the fake emails belonged to the state of Tennessee and was housed in the Office of Information Resources at the Department of Finance and Administration — a computer Marilyn Wilson, as an employee, allegedly could access.

Marilyn Wilson was put on paid leave by her employer, but resigned before the investigation was completed.

Jonathan P. Farmer of Jones Hawkins & Farmer PLC represented Marilyn Wilson in the wiretapping case. He said she believes the decision was a “fair agreement.”

“She is satisfied with the decision to divert the prosecution and is ready to move forward with her life,” Farmer said.