Source: https://steeringlaw.com/lawyers-lounge/the-scam-of-discovery-in-california-criminal-cases/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 06:17:23+00:00

Document:
THE SHAM AND SCAM OF DISCOVERY IN CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL CASES.
Most, If Not All, Police Agencies Destroy Or Conceal Exculpatory Evidence, When Their Officers Abuse Civilians And Procure Their Bogus Criminal Prosecutions.
Police Officers And Agencies Routinely Conceal And Destroy Exculpatory Evidence When They Violate Your Constitutional Rights.
The Genesis Of The Problem Of Police Arresting Their Victims – Terry v. Ohio.
“The opinion of the Court disclaims the existence of “probable cause.” If loitering were in issue and that was the offense charged, there would be “probable cause” shown. But the crime here is carrying concealed weapons; [n2] and there is no basis for concluding that the officer had “probable cause” for believing that that crime was being committed. Had a warrant been sought, a magistrate would, therefore, have been unauthorized to issue one, for he can act only if there is a showing of “probable cause.” We hold today that the police have greater authority to make a “seizure” and conduct a “search” than a judge has to authorize such action . . .
. . . To give the police greater power than a magistrate is to take a long step down the totalitarian path. Perhaps such a step is desirable to cope with modern forms of lawlessness. But if it is taken, it should be the deliberate choice of the people through a constitutional amendment. [p39] Until the Fourth Amendment, which is closely allied with the Fifth, [n4] is rewritten, the person and the effects of the individual are beyond the reach of all government agencies until there are reasonable grounds to believe (probable cause) that a criminal venture has been launched or is about to be launched.
We have said precisely the opposite over and over again. [n3] Yet if the individual is no longer to be sovereign, if the police can pick him up whenever they do not like the cut of his jib, if they can “seize” and “search” him in their discretion, we enter a new regime. The decision to enter it should be made only after a full debate by the people of this country.” Douglas, J., Dissenting.
The power that Terry v. Ohio gave the police is simply too much for many police officers to handle. For example, in Terry v. Ohio, for the first time in the history of the Republic, the Supreme Court “gave” the police the power to stop and frisk a person whom the police officer, based on articulable facts: 1) had a reasonable suspicion that crime “may be afoot” (“criminality afoot“), 2) that a particular person is suspected of being involved in that crime, and 3) he person suspected is armed and dangerous. A “stop and frisk” is also known as a “Terry stop.” A judge cannot issue a warrant for a person to be detained for questioning. There is no such thing as a detention warrant.
Terry v. Ohio was never meant to allow detentions of persons who were suspected of criminal activity and were not reasonably believed to have been armed and dangerous. See, Stop and Frisk Laws,Panelists discussed the Terry v. Ohio case, which dealt with law enforcement and police citizens encounters, C-SPAN Video, April 2, 1998. However, implicit in Terry’s stop and frisk of civilians is the ability of the police to detain that person. The police cannot frisk someone without in some way temporarily restricting their freedom to ignore the presence of the officer and to go about their business. They can’t pat them down on the run.
However, as always, give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. Accordingly, the “long step down the totalitarian path” was the Supreme Court’s departure from 177 years of American jurisprudence that required the government to have “probable cause” to believe that you committed a crime to restrain your liberty.
A “stop and frisk” is also known as a “Terry stop.”A judge cannot issue a warrant for a person to be detained for questioning. There is no such thing as a detention warrant.
So, the Supreme Court has given the police more power than a judge. The outcome of that endowment of police power, is the modern nationwide tsunami of acts of police abusing the public; usually for nothing other than their assertion of their Constitutional rights, or verbal challenge to unreasonable police orders to them. When a police officer abuses a civilian, the reaction of every police agency that this author has dealt with since 1984, isn’t to actually investigate the officer, but to put into motion the machinery of police agency damage mitigation; to shift the blame to the civilian who is the victim of police abuse.
Because, as a practical matter, the police have unfettered discretion stop you, to point a gun at you, to handcuff you, to search your person, to make you sit or prone on the ground, and to do other nasties to you, police officer often will arrest you for conduct that isn’t a crime; usually when you question or challenge their authority, or don’t do what they order you to do, without question or protest. When they do so, the violating police officer, his/her employing agency, and the violating officer’s fellow employees, are all now put in a position of either being honest and forthcoming (i.e. telling what really happened in their supplemental report, keeping and maintaining exculpatory evidence, and divulging exculpatory evidence), or being a “team player” (i.e. lying in their supplemental reports about what really happened, or destroying or concealing exculpatory evidence.) Otherwise honest cops are left with a choice of either implicating their fellow officers in crimes and constitutional torts, or telling the truth, and being driven out of their employing police agency. If the officer tells the truth, and implicates a fellow officer, his/her career is, for all practical purposes, over. There is always tremendous institutional pressure for a police agency that arrested you for a crime that you didn’t commit, to shift the blame to you. This is reality.
4) Cal. Penal Code § 240/241(c); Assault on a peace officer.
It is these offenses, known as “Resistance Offense”, that persons who are falsely arrested are usually arrested for, and that police most often conceal or destroy exculpatory evidence in connection with.
CONCEALMENT AND DESTRUCTION OF EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE BY POLICE AND PROSECUTORS.
In the first instance, where the very policies, customs and practices of the involved police agency leads to concealing exculpatory evidence from both the District Attorney’s Office, and, therefore, also from the criminal defendant.
In the second instance, where an individual police officer or deputy sheriff simply conceals or destroys exculpatory evidence. Both of these practices are very real and very commonplace.
This is not some lefty Socialist Worker’s Party propaganda; this is a simple matter of truth, justice and the American way; at least what we’re taught is the American way. See, Judge Kozinski on prosecutorial misconduct, Washington Post, July 17, 2015.
These Internal Affairs Investigation files are not only kept secret from the accused, but also from the District Attorney’s Office;literally disabling the District Attorney’s Office from complying with their obligations under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). See, How a Man Named Brady Made History 50 Years Ago. New York Law Journal, May 13, 2013.
“Because criminal defendants and the prosecution have equal ability to seek information in confidential personnel records , and because such defendants, who can represent their own interests at least as well as the prosecution and probably better, have the right to make a Pitchess motion whether or not the prosecution does so, we also conclude that the prosecution fulfills its Brady duty as regards the police department‘s tip if it informs the defense of what the police department informed it, namely, that the specified records might contain exculpatory information. That way, defendants may decide for themselves whether to bring a Pitchess motion.
People v. Superior Court, S221296, Cal. Supreme Court (2015); Chin, J.
This has to change. Moreover, as shown below, the cops simply lie through their teeth, and don’t give-up any “juice” against them, unless they conclude that they are going to get caught if they ditch the evidence. However, even if they do get caught, nothing is going to happen to them. Nothing.
THE “BRADY RULE” AND PROPOSITION 115.
This all came about as a result of the Glendale Doctor Murder Case, in which there was a six month long preliminary examination. Because of that six month long preliminary examination, the voters had enough of the “wasting of their money” by continuing to give those accused of crimes their fundamental rights, such as the right to confront their accusers, such as the right to “confront” (i.e. cross-examine) those witnesses accusing the defendant of a crime (a Sixth Amendment right), to decide whether the prosecution can show sufficient evidence to even have a felony trial. The right to a preliminary examination exists to weed-out meritless felony cases, so a person need not have to suffer the expense and degrading experience of have to defend themselves in a felony trial.
Prior to Proposition 115 (the “Crime Victims Justice Reform Act” of 1990), a person had a right to have non-hearsay evidence presented at their preliminary examination, so they could cross-examine the witnesses. So, for example, if your neighbor told the police that you stole his car, and you got arrested for auto theft, at your preliminary examination, the “victim” had to personally testify about what happened, and was subject to cross-examination. Now, with Prop 115, all that the prosecution need do, is to put a cop on the stand who is “Prop 115 qualified“, who then tells the judge, what he saw, and what everyone else told him (hearsay.) The cop can even testify as to what’s contained in another officer’s police report. You can’t cross-examine a police report, and you can’t cross-examine a witness who isn’t there. You might as well just give the police report to the judge, and let him rule based strictly on the report, because, in essence, that’s what’s going on; all under the guise of “reform”.
However, there “glitches” with this system.
FIRST “GLITCH” IN CALIFORNIA’S STATUTORY CRIMINAL DISCOVERY SCHEME; PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.
BECAUSE “PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY” IS INHERENT IN CALIFORNIA’S STATUTORY DISCOVERY SCHEME, THE POLICE CAN, AND DO, LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH TO THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, ABOUT WHAT EVIDENCE EXISTS, AND WHAT DOESN’T.
The criminal defendant’s lawyer makes “informal” discovery requests upon the District Attorney’s Office (or State Attorney General’s Office or City Attorney’s Office; who ever is prosecuting the case), pursuant to Cal. Penal Code §§ 1054.1 and 1054.5. The District Attorney’s Office forward’s the defendants discovery request to the arresting and/or investigating police agency (if you’re lucky, and when they get around to it), who then supposedly looks for the requested evidence, and then supposedly produces the same to the District Attorney’s Office. The police tell the District Attorney’s Office that they don’t have certain items of evidence, but, in almost every case, they actually do; usually lots of other evidence. This is no joke.
Then, after being denied the requested discovery, the defendant’s lawyer files a Motion to Compel Discovery with the Superior Court. The Judge then makes rulings on compelling the disclosure of certain items of evidence, and, very often, will simply take the DA’s or police agency’s word that certain items don’t exist. If, somehow, the criminal defendant can prove that these type of documents are routinely used by that particular police agency, the defendant’s lawyer may be able to convince a judge to issue an order compelling the production of the sought evidence. However, many Judges are either just too “pro-police”, or too scared that they won’t get the police union’s endorsement when they have to run for reelection, to issue such discovery orders, when the DA’s office or police agency tells him that the requested items don’t exist. Thus, the system is rigged against the criminal defendant.
Many times, the police are either too lazy to do their job (i.e. locate and produce the evidence to the District Attorney’s Office), or too corrupt to produce evidence that they believe might result in either the acquittal of the criminal defendant, or might otherwise implicate the police agency in misconduct; especially misconduct that might expose the employing municipal entity to civil liability (Yes, police agencies really do that routinely; just like in the Osborne case, above.) Who is going to either care, or do anything about the police routinely and quite deliberately, withholding exculpatory evidence? Jerry Brown? Kamala Harris? Eric Holder? Kofi Annan? The Pope? Santa Claus? The answer is, nobody.
The overwhelming majority of cases handled by the Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering involve police officers and deputy sheriffs who have committed acts of dishonesty (i.e. false testifying in depositions in civil rights cases, falsely testifying in court, authoring false and misleading police reports), or have committed other acts that can be used to show a criminal defendant’s innocence (i.e. a pattern of beating-up innocents and then framing or attempting to frame them.) Moreover, because The Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering sues cops, Mr. Steering has obtained in civil discovery (i.e. depositions, document production demands and interrogatories), much more and different types of police agency documents and items of evidence, that a regular lawyer who only does criminal cases doesn’t know exist. We can help you significantly with your criminal case in this way; knowing what evidence is available from a particular police agency.
SECOND “GLITCH” IN STATUTORY DISCOVERY SCHEME; INTENTIONAL POLICE DESTRUCTION POTENTIALLY OR ACTUALLY EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE BY POLICE AGENCIES IS “LEGAL”.
Government Tort Claim period was enlarged to 6 months, the geniuses in Sacramento forgot about Section 26202.6 and 34090.6, and failed to also enlarged those retention periods to six months. However, most municipal entities became aware of this discrepancy and changed their retention period to six months or more.
CAUTION: THESE RETENTION PERIODS ARE OFTEN MISREPRESENTED IN COURT BY THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE.
It’s not that the District Attorney’s Office is lying. Because of the insidious way that pre-trial discovery works in California state court criminal prosecutions, perfectly honest Deputy District Attorneys simply stand-up in court, and tell the judge that she/he spoke with the involved police agency, and that some nice Detective or Evidence / Records Clerk at the police agency, told her that the recordings and documents sought, just don’t exist. End of story. Ninety percent of discovery disputes in California State Court criminal proceedings are basically handled that way. So, when you get-up in court, and want to obtain the audio recordings of 911 call that prompted the dispatcher to summons the patrol officer, jurisdictions such as the Riverside Sheriff’s Department will tell you that they have recently enlarged their retention period, from six months, to eight months.
Although the six moth retention period may have been justifiable when audio recordings was actually recorded on tape, now, the telephone and radio communications for a department for an entire year can be stored on a thumb drive. There is no reason to destroy them at all. The justification in past for “recycling” the radio and telephone communications tapes, was the fact that they were tapes that took-up a lot of space; not so for digital media. Nowadays, you can store the entire year’s worth of audio recordings of radio and telephone communications on a thumb drive.
Moreover, this is so, even though the statute of limitations to file a misdemeanor is one year, and three years for a felony. So, if the cops really want to play dirty, they can wait six months, wait and see if you file a Government Tort Claim for Damages, and then, if you do, they can “flush” the recordings of the very radio dispatch upon which they relied in detaining you to begin with, and proceed to prosecute you; to beat you down and to preclude you from successfully prosecuting your civil claim. Also, since the 100 day retention period is still in effect, if the criminal defense attorney doesn’t make a formal demand on the police agency to preserve those recordings within the 100 day period, and the cops “purge” or the recordings, too bad for you. See, Fowler v. Superior Court, 162 Cal. App.3d 215 (1984.) This is so, even if there is a pending criminal case against you; something prohibited by the language of Sections 26202.6 and 34090.6, because the Fowler Court held that police shouldn’t have to monitor their cases, to see which ones are being prosecuted. So, if you’re being prosecuted for resisting a detention by a peace officer (Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1)), and the cops legal basis for detaining you is the radio dispatch that they received about someone who the police were told committed a crime, if your lawyer doesn’t make a formal preservation demand on the arresting police agency for the audio recordings of radio or telephone communications, the criminal defendant simply is put in a position of not being able to refute that basis for their detention (the radio dispatch communication), because of the police agency’s retention policy.
THIRD “GLITCH” IN STATUTORY DISCOVERY SCHEME; DISCOVERY OF PEACE OFFICER PERSONNEL RECORDS IN CRIMINAL CASES.
Therefore, if a criminal defendant is being accused of a crime such a resisting / obstructing / delaying a peace officer (Cal. Penal Code § 148(a)(1)), or assault and/or battery on a peace officer (Cal. Penal Code § 240/241(b)), battery on a peace officer (Cal. Penal Code §§ 242/243(b)) and Cal. Penal Code § 69; using or threatening the use of force and violence to interfere with a public officers lawful performance of his / her duties. See, People v. Curtis, 70 Cal.2d 347 (1969.) Thus, since prior incidents of brutality and/or dishonesty by a peace officer are typically considered admissible evidence in these types of case (i.e. * prior acts of dishonesty – for witness impeachment purposes, and prior acts of brutality -to show the officer’s propensity for violence by the “victim” peace officer; to prove unreasonable force during event [an actual and proper defense to “contempt of cop” crimes]), such evidence must necessarily be discoverable (that is, because it’s relevant and often exculpatory, the defendant is entitled to a copy of the evidence) by a criminal defendant, as well as civil plaintiffs, under different theories of admissibility.
However, in the real world, the only thing that one gets from a California Superior Court Judge in a Pitchess Motion, are the names, addresses and telephone numbers of persons who either made complaints against a particular peace officer, and any those of witnesses to any such incident that’s the subject of the complaint; and that’s if you’re lucky. Notwithstanding the unambiguous language of Cal. Evid. Code § 1045(a), in a California Superior Court, one simply does not get those “records of complaints, or investigations of complaints” guaranteed to them by Section 1045, save extremely unusual cases.
One such type unusual “extremely unusual case”, is when a criminal defendant moves the Superior Court to obtain the Internal Affairs / Administrative Investigation witness statements, including the statements of the very peace officers who the defendant is being accused of committing some sort of crime against. The police fight to the death over these records. If a criminal defense lawyer somehow obtains an order compelling the employing the police agency to actually turnover these generally exculpatory documents and recordings (including impeachment and “story shaping” gems), the employing agency / entity will almost assuredly file a Petition for a Writ of Mandate with the Court of Appeal, and, if unsuccessful, Petition the California Supreme Court for Review; costing you a bloody fortune to defend yourself.
Moreover, although Pitchess v. Superior Court held that a criminal defendant may show evidence of the character of his victim to prove actions in conformity therewith, it was not until 2012 that a criminal defendant was permitted to obtain the statements of witnesses and participants to the very same incident that he/she is being criminally prosecuted for (See, Rezek v. Superior Court of Orange County (2012)); notwithstanding the most basic of Constitutional principles; the defendant’s entitlement to exculpatory evidence.
Attached are the “Pitchess Motion” documents, from a California Superior Court criminal cases, Hopefully, this example can help you in your case. Sample Pitchess Motion Notice of Motion, Declaration in support of the motion, Memorandum of Points and Authorities in support of the Motion, and the attached Notice Of Lodging Police Report in support of the Motion.
If you have a criminal or civil case, and want to find out if the Law Offices of Jerry L. Steering has exculpatory evidence on a particular police officer or deputy sheriff, please contact our staff at (949) 474-1849, or email jerrysteering@yahoo.com, and we will let you know what, if anything, we have on a particular police officer or deputy sheriff.If you have an officer that you would like to add to our Pitchess List data bank, please please contact our staff at (949) 474-1849, or email jerrysteering@yahoo.com. If you would like a sample copy of a Pitchess Motion, please also email or call, and we will provide you with those items.

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