Opinion ID: 2103748
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Loss or Destruction of Evidence

Text: The defendant contends that the State's loss or destruction of material evidence impaired his rights to a fair trial and due process of law under the fifth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 12 of the Indiana Constitution. [4] Prior to trial, the defendant moved to dismiss the death penalty charge against him, alleging that the State had either lost or destroyed the audio tape recordings allegedly made during the February 25, 1991, interrogation at the Indiana State Police Post in Lafayette and of the April 10, 1991, advice and waiver of rights preceding interrogation. The trial court denied this motion, and the defendant timely reasserted his objections during the presentation of evidence at trial. The Record establishes that on February 25, 1991, the defendant was being interrogated in a polygraph room at the Lafayette State Police Post while other officers were listening over a speaker system in a listening room. Citing the testimony of Sergeant James, the State contends that the record is devoid of evidence that tape recordings were made of the February 25, 1991, statements. The State contends that in order for people in the listening room to hear what was going on in the polygraph room, a tape cassette had to be placed in a recorder in the listening room so that sound from the polygraph room could be transmitted to the recorder's speakers. However, the device did not actually have to be recording to effect transmission if the pause button were pushed. Record at 3209-10, 3215-16. Sergeant James testified that he did place a tape cassette into the recorder. Although stating that he believed that the conversation was recorded, James consistently emphasized that he lacked actual knowledge of that fact because, after inserting the tape cassette, he left the room. Record at 3197-98, 3206, 3207. Sheriff Hudson testified that the tape cassette was repeatedly turned over and reused to keep the listening device going and that whatever was on it would be recorded over. Record at 772. However, Sheriff Hudson testified at the suppression hearing that the State Police or the Tippecanoe County Sheriff gave him a couple of tapes following the listening session but that he never listened to the tapes and did not know of their whereabouts thereafter. Record at 773. On April 10, 1991, at the Tippecanoe County Jail, the defendant summoned a detective to confess to the killing of the minister. The detective turned on the tape recorder and read the defendant his rights. The defendant then signed a waiver form, gestured for the tape recorder to be turned off, and proceeded to make unrecorded inculpatory remarks. The detective testified that he had not kept the tape and probably had reused it. The defendant claims that tapes from this session would have revealed that he felt he was pressured by the possibility of missing a family visit and, accordingly, that any statement he made at that time might not be voluntary. The defendant concedes that under Arizona v. Youngblood (1988), 488 U.S. 51, 109 S.Ct. 333, 102 L.Ed.2d 281, the failure to preserve potentially useful evidence does not constitute a denial of due process of law unless a criminal defendant can show bad faith on the part of the police. Id. at 58, 109 S.Ct. at 337, 102 L.Ed.2d at 289. He argues that he has established that the police acted in bad faith, further urging that Indiana case law provides: [T]he negligent destruction or withholding of material evidence by police or prosecution may present grounds for reversal. The defendant must establish materiality as a condition precedent to claiming a denial of due process where evidence is negligently lost or withheld by the government except where the materiality is self evident or a showing of materiality is prevented by the destruction of the evidence. Brief of Appellant at 116 (quoting Lee v. State (1989), Ind., 545 N.E.2d 1085, 1089). In Lee, this Court did not hold that materiality was the sole determinant in a claim of negligently lost or withheld evidence. Rather, as a condition precedent, a showing of materiality must be made before the courts are required to address the principal issue of whether there was bad faith on the part of the police. The defendant argues that the materiality of the tapes of February 25, 1991, lies in their ability to establish whether the defendant asked for an attorney before he made any incriminating admissions. According to four other officers, the defendant made the incriminating remarks before he requested an attorney. The defendant argues that the tapes are material in resolving this dispute which would in turn determine whether the incriminating statements were properly admitted as evidence against the defendant. The trial court found that the disputed contents of the February 25 conversation would have been definitively answered if the conversation had been tape-recorded and the recording retained. The court further found that the absence of the tapes creates a credibility issue but is not fatal to the State's ability to maintain the death penalty request. Record at 95. Because it has not been established that the tape recordings ever existed, there is no showing that the police necessarily lost or destroyed material evidence. The defendant asserts that the materiality of the April 10, 1991, advisement of rights tape is its ability to prove that the defendant waived his rights under coercion and duress, as the defendant expected to have visitation with his family in Carroll County before he was unexpectedly transferred to Tippecanoe County. The defendant claims that he told the police, before they turned off the recorder, that he felt that he was under pressure, being moved from county to county without seeing his family. The preliminary advisements to the April 10 statement clearly were recorded by police before the tape was subsequently lost or reused. We agree that the recording would have provided material evidence. However, the defendant has failed to demonstrate bad faith on the part of the police in failing to preserve the tape. We reject the defendant's argument that police bad faith is established merely by showing a high improbability that the police misplaced evidence in good faith. We find no error on this issue.