Opinion ID: 2519810
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The 1990 Citizen Complaint Was Material

Text: Finally, the majority concludes that the 10 year old citizen complaint was not Brady material: Officer C.'s general veracity was called into question by the 1990 [incident], after denying the incident had occurred. Nonetheless, that dereliction-failure to report misconduct by a fellow officerwas similar in kind to the disclosed incident in 1996 when Officer C. failed to report an assault on a prisoner by a fellow officer. Neither incident involved coaching witnesses to fabricate evidence. (Maj. opn., ante, 124 Cal.Rptr.2d at p. 213, 52 P.3d at pp. 138-139.) I disagree. Not only did the officer fail to report these two incidents, it was noted by the Court of Appeal that the officer's own agency found that he lied when he claimed these two incidents did not occur. Such conduct is not simply a case of failure to report misconduct, but more aptly a case of allying on two separate occasions. The defendant accused this officer of coaching witnesses to fabricate evidence against him. Past incidents of lying have direct bearing on the officer's veracity and whether he would coach witnesses to fabricate. I would not disturb the trial court or Court of Appeal ruling holding the 1990 report admissible.