Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot Thursday announced an audit of every case touched by a Dallas Police detective involved in a high-profile murder case that defense attorneys want to be dropped over missing evidence.
It’s the second time in two years that Dallas Police are scrambling to address data and evidence problems.
The new case in the 282nd District Court is a pending trial for the 2020 murder of Marisela Botello Valadez. The 23-year-old woman from Seattle was last seen in Deep Ellum in October 2020. Her body was found months later near Wilmer.
Nina Marano is one of the defendants in the case. Heath Harris, one of her attorneys, said charges should be dropped because of missing evidence.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
“Whether it's material to the court, material to the defense material to the state, we'll never know that because we don't have it,” Harris said.
In court records, Harris said 18 videos recorded as evidence at the Mesquite house where the murder allegedly occurred have disappeared.
In court, Harris said the lead detective in the case, Christine Ramirez, admitted errors in saving data and apologized.
Thursday, District Attorney John Creuzot said in a statement he wants an audit of every case Ramirez ever touched.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Former prosecutor Russell Wilson, who is not involved in this case, said he supports reviewing the detective’s other work.
“In extreme circumstances, when there’s been significant destruction of evidence, it certainly would seem unfair to put a person to trial with only part of the facts that were gathered and not all of them,” Wilson said. “Certainly, the appropriate thing to do is make it known when mistakes do occur but that isn't necessarily the end of the analysis.”
Wilson said mistakes may not be sufficient to dismiss a case.
Separately from Ramirez, Police also confirm they have another data issue under review with 52,000 files that were improperly cataloged. In an email Thursday, police said the number of files still in question is down to 13,000.
Police issued the following statement about those files.
“Notifications were not made due to this being an internal audit and an administrative matter. No digital files on the system were lost. The digital files were uncategorized and were saved on the system. At the time of the audit – 98 percent of the files were categorized. The audit found two percent that were not. Steps have been taken since the audit to categorize the files that were not already, and ensure compliance department wide. More than 99 percent of the files on the system are now categorized. Administration is currently working to determine if any uncategorized files are part of any investigation. Any digital files that are identified as part of an ongoing investigation would be turned over as is required by law.”
Creuzot issued this statement about those files:
“Let me begin by saying I am continuing to engage in a constant dialogue with DPD Chief Eddie Garcia, and we agree this situation deserves our immediate attention.
The Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office was not made aware of the 52,000 uncategorized digital files at the Dallas Police Department until media reports surfaced this week. Of course, we would have and perhaps should have been made aware of this issue when it was initially discovered in November 2022, but since learning of the issue, I have come to understand these materials are believed to be more of an administrative nature rather than investigative. However, due to the volume of uncategorized files, it is also possible that some contain investigative materials. If so, DPD has been instructed to immediately send that information to my office.”
Another employee error two years ago was blamed for an even larger Dallas Police data loss, months before prosecutors were told at that time.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said in November 2021 that police did not want to yell "fire" at first because they did not know the extent of that situation.
Evidence for another homicide case was threatened at that time, but data for that homicide evidence was recovered.
After an intense review of that data loss with a Dallas City Council Committee, officials said storage procedure improvements were made in 2021.
“Because of what didn't happen, I firmly believe these cases should be dismissed,” said Harris, noting that he can only talk about his current case.
Judge Amber Givens said she will rule on the motion to dismiss when the case comes up for trial next month.
A police internal affairs review is underway on evidence issues concerning Ramirez.
Det. Ramirez could not be reached for comment.
