Opinion ID: 698175
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Bad Faith Destruction of Exculpatory Evidence

Text: 29 We reject Winn's claim that the district court should have dismissed the indictment because the government violated his right to due process by destroying the dispatch tapes from the night of the arrest, selling the van used to transport the illegal aliens, losing the hat and identification allegedly seized from Winn, and releasing the material witnesses. 30 The destruction of exculpatory evidence violates due process if the evidence's exculpatory value was apparent before the evidence was destroyed, and is of such a nature that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means. California v. Trombetta, 467 U.S. 479, 489 (1984). The defendant must demonstrate that the government acted in bad faith in failing to preserve the evidence. Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51, 58 (1988). 31 The government sold the van and returned the dispatch tape to service shortly after Winn's attorney informed the government that the case had been settled. In light of the reported settlement, the excuplatory value of this evidence was not apparent and the government did not act in bad faith. 32 Although the white hat allegedly seized from Winn possibly could have been used to refute the government's claim that Winn was the man described by Lopez-Medina, Winn has failed to show that the government lost or destroyed the hat or false identification in bad faith. 33 Finally, Winn cannot complain about the return of the material witnesses to Mexico because he stipulated to the return of one and failed to object to the return of the other.