Pubdate: Thu, 06 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: Kelly Puente

JUDGE DELAYS DECISION ON POT-SHOP VIDEO

SANTA ANA - A judge on Wednesday postponed a decision on whether to 
issue a temporary restraining order to stop the Santa Ana Police 
Department from using surveillance video in an internal affairs 
investigation over officers' actions in a pot shop raid.

Three unidentified officers and the Santa Ana Police Officers 
Association have filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent internal affairs 
investigators from using a hidden camera video from a May 26 raid at 
Sky High Collective to determine if department policies were violated.

The surveillance video shows officers making off-color remarks about 
a disabled woman and purportedly eating pot edibles and playing darts 
during the raid.

In a Wednesday hearing, Corey Glave, the attorney representing the 
association and the three officers, said the officers had a 
reasonable expectation of privacy because they didn't know they were 
being "eavesdropped on or recorded."

When officers raided the store, they disabled all the surveillance 
cameras and moved the customers outside, but they missed a hidden 
camera on a shelf.

"At that point everybody in the room feels comfortable enough that 
they're not being recorded, so much so that the undercover officers 
removed their masks," Glave said. "Then you have adults having adult 
conversations, and some of them might not be the most pleasant to 
other people, but that's what they are."

Glave argued that privacy rights were violated and that officers will 
suffer "irreparable harm," including discipline and termination, if 
the video is used in the ongoing investigation.

The California Invasion of Privacy Act makes it illegal for 
individuals, with the exception of police or confidential informants, 
to wear hidden cameras and or to record phone conversations unless 
they tell the other person who is being recorded.

Orange County Superior Court Judge William D. Claster, however, said 
he had reservations about some of the plaintiffs' claims.

"I'm troubled by the fundamental request of halting an investigation 
based on the theory that the recording that's triggered this 
investigation is illegal," Claster said.

Claster said the city of Santa Ana, having recently received the 
lawsuit, hasn't had adequate time to prepare their argument. "I have 
my doubts," the judge said to Glave, "but I also don't think the city 
has had a fair chance to respond." Claster then ruled to continue the 
hearing to give attorneys for Santa Ana and its police department 
more time to prepare a response. The case is scheduled to go before 
Judge Ronald L. Bauer at 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 13.

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

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

In one of the clips, police officers break through the front door of 
the 17th Street medical marijuana dispensary and order at least a 
half-dozen customers to the floor.

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

Glave has said the video is altered to intentionally misrepresent 
what happened.

Staff writer Scott Schwebke contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom