A local defense attorney is calling for the dismissal of a
criminal case because he believes the police department has
withheld and possibly tampered with evidence.
A local defense attorney is calling for the dismissal of a criminal case because he believes the police department has withheld and possibly tampered with evidence.
Hollister defense attorney Arthur Cantu said the Hollister Police Department appears to have unjustly withheld a video tape that captured an alleged July 1, 2002 struggle between his client, Albert Rodriguez Solorio, and Sgt. Greg Thul. The struggle sent both men through a plate glass window seriously injuring both.
Cantu said police seized the tape after the incident nearly a year ago but did not notify anyone they had it.
“The police department decided not to provide the defense with the evidence,” Cantu said. “I can’t say if it was in the evidence room because it wasn’t in the log.”
Cantu is taking his complaints to Superior Court today and will ask a judge to dismiss all the charges against Solorio.
Standard evidence handling procedure requires every piece of evidence seized by police to be logged and placed into the evidence room.
Police Chief Larry Todd said although he was not here at the time of the incident, he does not believe there has been any mishandled evidence within the department.
“I have reviewed the evidence room procedures thoroughly and I can assure you that there is no propensity for this department to mishandle evidence,” Todd said.
Todd also expressed some disappointment in Cantu’s tactics of trying to take his case to the media instead of proving it in court.
“It’s easy for a defense attorney to make unsubstantiated claims,” Todd said. “If he has any substantial claim, he should either come see me, see the district attorney or go to the attorney general and demand an investigation.”
Cantu said it has been difficult to call for an investigation when even the existence of the tape was kept from him until recently.
“It was just recently that a prosecutor stood in court and said that there was no tape,” Cantu said. “And now they are saying that there is one.”
Cantu added that means either the district attorney’s office is part of the alleged deception or is being used.
“Either the district attorney’s office was lying or being lied to,” Cantu said.
District Attorney John Sarsfield said there his office has not mishandled or held back any evidence.
By law, prosecutors must present defense attorneys with a list naming all the known evidence against a defendant and, where possible, allow the defense to examine the evidence.
“We’ve given him everything that we are required to,” Sarsfield said.
It would be difficult for an attorney in his office to withhold or tamper with evidence, Sarsfield said.
“We don’t handle, keep or track evidence,” he said.
Cantu is concerned that the video tape may have been tampered with and there were only 15 seconds of images on the tape.
“It’s not that there was only 10 or 15 seconds filmed, but the actual physical length of the tape is 10 or 15 seconds long,” Cantu said. “Now, who makes a VCR tape that is only 10 or 15 seconds long.”
