Pubdate: Tue, 04 Aug 2015
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Orange County Register
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321
Author: Scott Schwebke

OFFICERS SUE TO QUASH VIDEO

SANTA ANA - Three Santa Ana police officers want to quash a 
surveillance video that shows officers making derogatory comments 
about a disabled woman and possibly snacking on pot edibles during a 
recent raid of a medical marijuana dispensary.

A lawsuit, filed last week in Orange County Superior Court by three 
unidentified police officers and the Santa Ana Police Officers 
Association, seeks to prevent Santa Ana Police Department internal 
affairs investigators from using the video as they sort out what 
happened during the May 26 raid of Sky High Collective.

Lawyers for police and the dispensary said the video - which has been 
widely seen on television and several online news sites, including 
ocregister.com - could play a key role in the ongoing investigation 
into the officers' actions.

The lawyers disagree about the video's accuracy and authenticity.

Matthew Pappas, a lawyer for Sky High, pointed to the irony of police 
seeking to shoot down the use of video as evidence in an 
investigation when they routinely use videos to investigate other crimes.

"It's pretty pathetic for police to say if we don't like something 
that it can't be used as evidence," Pappas said.

Corey W. Glave, a Hermosa Beach attorney representing the Santa Ana 
Police Officers Association and the three officers, said the video 
was taken without the officers' knowledge and was handled by Pappas, 
among others, prior to being made public.

Glave said Pappas has altered the video in a way to make the police look bad.

"The attorney representing the drug dispensary intentionally has 
misrepresented what happened," Glave said.

Pappas has provided the Register and Santa Ana police with two 
versions of the raid footage, a highlight reel and a version that he 
says is the full, unedited video.

In one of the shortened video clips, armed Santa Ana police officers, 
some wearing masks, are seen breaking through the front door of the 
17th Street dispensary and ordering at least a half-dozen customers 
to the floor.

At the time, Santa Ana city law did not allow for the operation of 
marijuana dispensaries.

After entering the building, police are seen dismantling video 
cameras inside the store.

After most of the cameras are taken down, a camera they didn't detect 
shows the officers talking about a woman with an amputated left leg 
who at the time of the raid was in her wheelchair inside the dispensary.

"Did you punch that one-legged old Benita," a male officer asks a 
female officer, apparently referring to the woman in the wheelchair.

"I was about to kick her in her (expletive) nub," the female officer 
replies, according to subtitles with the video.

In another clip - which Pappas has titled "Officers eating edibles 
and playing darts" - a voice can be heard asking, "What flavor?" 
before an officer is seen unwrapping a small package and putting 
something in his mouth.

The lawsuit argues that the video doesn't paint a fair version of 
events. The suit also claims the video shouldn't be used as evidence 
because, among other things, the police didn't know they were on camera.

"All police personnel present had a reasonable expectation that their 
conversations were no longer being recorded and the undercover 
officers, feeling that they were safe to do so, removed their masks," 
says the suit.

The dispensary also did not obtain consent of any officer to record 
them, the suit says.

"Without the illegal recordings, there would have been no internal 
investigation of any officer," the suit says.

Pappas counters that the suit is baseless because the officers were 
aware the dispensary had video cameras and managed to disable most of them.

"They knew they were on video. ... Just because they missed one 
camera doesn't make it illegal."

The city of Santa Ana, the Police Department and Chief Carlos Rojas 
are named as defendants. Officials with the Santa Ana Police Officers 
Association did not return phone calls seeking comment.

No officers have been terminated in connection with the ongoing 
internal affairs investigation, said Santa Ana police spokesman Cpl. 
Anthony Bertagna.

The three officers have received threats since the raid and have 
incurred damages, including attorney's fees and lost wages, according 
to the suit.

A hearing date for the case has not been set.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom