Pubdate: Wed, 05 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

EXPERTS: VIDEO LAWSUIT LIKELY TO FLOP

SANTA ANA - Three police officers will have difficulty persuading a 
judge to throw out surveillance video showing officers making 
off-color remarks about a disabled woman and purportedly eating pot 
edibles during a marijuana dispensary raid, legal experts say.

"They have significant obstacles," Laurie Levenson, an attorney and 
professor at Loyola Law School, said Tuesday. "The best defense is a 
good offense. They are obviously embarrassed by the videotapes. If 
they can't make them go away, they want to blame the people who made 
them. I don't think many people feel sorry for the officers in this situation."

The three unidentified officers and the Santa Ana Police Officers 
Association filed a lawsuit last week in Orange County Superior court 
seeking to prevent Santa Ana police internal affairs investigators 
from using hidden camera footage from a May 26 raid at Sky High 
Collective to determine if department policies were violated.

Santa Ana Police Department officials have declined to comment on the 
ongoing internal affairs investigation.

Matthew Pappas, an attorney for Sky High, has distributed clips and 
unedited versions of the video to several television stations and 
news organizations including the Register.

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

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

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

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.

Santa Ana Police Officer Association President John Franks said the 
video should not be used in the internal affairs investigation 
because it was obtained illegally.

"While citizens recording public actions by the police may be 
acceptable, police conduct in private where there is an expectation 
of privacy cannot be recorded by a non police officer," Franks said 
in an email. "Because the video is illegal, the use of it by anyone, 
including the department to conduct an investigation, isn't proper."

Larry Rosenthal, an attorney and professor of law at Chapman 
University, described the claim that some police conduct should be 
private as "ridiculous."

"When you are on duty as a public official, you have no expectation 
that what you do will not be subject to public scrutiny," he said. "I 
don't think it matters whether cameras were destroyed or not. They 
were doing the public's business."

Levenson said the officers will likely have difficulty convincing a 
judge they had reason to believe their actions wouldn't be recorded.

"Given that they had already dismantled many of the cameras, it will 
be hard for them to argue," she said. "I don't think the state's wire 
tap law was ever intended to be applied to this situation."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom