We are hearing directly from the Dallas County District Attorney about missing police evidence issues first reported back in February. Police are still searching for files that could affect cases.
New information in a memo to Dallas City Council members Friday showed even more police videos than known before were improperly labeled.
The memo said 89,000 since 2016 were uncategorized. That compares to the 52,000 that were reported in February.
For the first time Friday, District Attorney John Creuzot spoke on the record about Dallas Police evidence issues. Creuzot said he thinks most of the data will be found.
“I think that there’s a high likelihood that much of this data will not impact the outcome of the case. I think that there will be some that will impact the outcome and we’ll have to be responsible toward that. We’re here to make sure that the right thing is done,” Creuzot said.
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Defense lawyers Friday took issue with some of Creuzot’s comments.
Assistant Public Defender Brad Lollar said more than a dozen murder cases from his office are involved in potentially missing police evidence.
“We’re kind of stuck not knowing and so is the prosecutor frankly,” Lollar said.
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One Public Defender case is the 2021 murder and robbery of Kobe Mascorro who was killed on South Barry Street in Dallas.
Lollar said there was Dallas Police body cam video of the arrest of defendant Tyle Ingram a month later.
“And that has apparently been destroyed. So, we’re considering what to do about that. We don’t think it will affect the case, but we want to make sure before we do anything,” Lollar said.
Both Lollar and criminal defense attorney Heath Harris said it is too soon to say whether the missing videos will impact cases current or even past cases.
“People that have plead guilty, people that have been sentenced in the past are all going to be concerned, was this process in place when I plead guilty, when they told me we had all our evidence,” Harris said.
Harris is seeking dismissal of murder charges against Nina Marano for the 2020 murder of Marisela Botello.
Prosecutors won removal of Judge Amber Givens in that case for critical remarks the judge made about prosecutors and the evidence. But Harris said the entire case should be dropped over the evidence problems.
“Yea the case should be dismissed, not because that’s what we want but because we believe that’s what the law dictates,” Harris
Harris said police body cam video from a house where the murder occurred has been lost. Missing video also included interviews with witnesses, he said.
“It’s gone. It’s deleted. We can’t get it back,” Harris said.
A new judge has been appointed to pick up that case and consider the evidence and motion to dismiss the case.
Creuzot said his office will see that justice is done in all these current cases and any past cases that defense attorneys may want reconsidered.
“If they file a motion for a new trial, we encourage them to do so if they think that is appropriate. But we’re going to do our job and look at it to see whether or not it was of such a quality that it should have a bearing on whether or not a person gets a new trial,” Creuzot said.
A police spokesperson said the evidence review and categorization of videos is ongoing, it will be complete and results will be shared with prosecutors, courts and the Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee when it is finished.
The memo said 89,000 video files is just 2% of the total saved since 2016 and the number still to be reviewed is down to 18,000.
The memo said 5,000 new Dallas Police evidence videos are recorded and saved every day.
