Alva Review-Courier -

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City, Kansas, improperly listened to recorded communications between inmates and their defense attorneys and willfully violated court orders during an independent investigation of the systemic practice, a judge said in a ruling that could upend hundreds of federal convictions and sentences.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in a 188-page decision handed down late Tuesday also held the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas in contempt of court, saying she would impose monetary sanctions against the government as punishment for...