Police Did Not Retain Evidence, So Charges Were Dismissed.

The trial court dismissed robbery charges against three defendants and the prosecution appealed. The night they were arrested, one of the three specifically asked the detective in charge to check the video cameras, which the detective later denied, but was impeached with an audio of the conversation. At the first opportunity, the defense lawyer asked the trial court to order relevant videos produced, but the prosecutor promised they would be preserved. They were destroyed, and it is unknown what they might have shown. The appellate court affirmed the dismissal as to two of the three defendants, the two who submitted evidence, but not as to the third defendant, stating: “Police and prosecutors are more than willing to avail themselves of technology when it is to their advantage; there must be a level playing field that gives defendants equal access to the same evidence. . . . While judges must act as ‘quality control’ to remedy constitutional errors, it is ultimately up to the police and prosecutors to end the failure to retain evidence or its bad faith destruction.” (The People v. Alvarez, Jr. (Cal. App. Fourth Dist., Div. 3; September 10, 2014) 229 Cal.App.4th 761, [176 Cal.Rptr.3d 890].)