Orange County sheriff’s officers are being accused in court docket data of planting proof by transferring medicine present in one investigation into the file of a second, unrelated drug case.
Greater than 17 grams of methamphetamine have been present in 5 plastic luggage in a room of a Buena Park motel throughout an investigation in 2020. However attorneys with the general public defender’s workplace on Wednesday alleged the medicine have been moved almost two weeks later into the proof towards one other suspect, Ace Kuumeaaloha Kelley, whose prison case was unrelated.
“The astonishing fact is that the methamphetamine was really seized throughout a search of one other motel room that very same day, unconnected to this defendant,” the submitting reads.
On the middle of the allegations filed in court docket Wednesday is Sheriff’s Sgt. Matthew LeFlore, a lately promoted investigator who has confronted a collection of allegations of misconduct, together with mishandling proof, mendacity in experiences about it, and allegedly illegally listening in on non-public telephone calls between a county inmate and his lawyer.
Within the court docket submitting, attorneys allege that not solely was the drug proof moved from one unrelated case to a different, but in addition that LeFlore and different officers within the division “conspired to cover from the defendant the reality in regards to the motion of proof into this case.”
“That is the sort of conduct that ought to ship chills down the spines of the general public — sworn officers shifting proof from one case to a different after which doing all the pieces of their energy to cowl up what they did,” mentioned Tammy Nguyen, a deputy public defender within the case.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Division, in a short assertion, didn’t reply to questions relating to the allegations towards LeFlore and different officers.
“We’ve got obtained the movement and can adjust to all court docket orders,” a spokesperson mentioned.
In line with the court docket submitting, deputies searched two rooms of a Buena Park motel in unrelated investigations on Oct. 19, 2020.
In a report dated Oct. 20, 2020, LeFlore allegedly famous he had collected and booked the proof within the investigation towards Kelley, together with 17.8 grams of methamphetamine. Investigators additionally discovered heroin within the room.
However attorneys for Kelley mentioned the proof was present in one other motel room, which was unrelated to Kelley’s case. Two weeks after the search, the methamphetamine was moved from that case into Kelley’s case, they allege.
Protection attorneys mentioned paperwork lately launched by the Orange County Crime Lab clued them in that the proof was moved. The lab exams and examines proof corresponding to confiscated medicine. In line with the submitting, a observe in paperwork supplied by the lab said the proof was moved, on the request of the Sheriff’s Division, from one case file to a different on Nov. 4, 2020, almost two weeks after the search.
“That is no completely different than planting proof in a case,” mentioned Deputy Public Defender Scott Sanders, who has beforehand uncovered in court docket filings a number of situations of proof mishandling by the Orange County Sheriff’s Division. The proof mishandling scandal resulted within the discount or dropping of prices in a minimum of 67 circumstances.
Protection attorneys additionally alleged that, after the proof was moved, one other sheriff’s official, Sgt. Arthur Tiscareno, “manipulated” data displaying when proof was booked within the Kelley case, making it look as if the methamphetamine had been booked on Oct. 19, 2020.
“The motion of the methamphetamine would have logically been carried out on the route of and in coordination with Sergeant LeFlore and Sergeant Tiscareno,” the 110-page court docket doc reads.
Tiscareno’s report, nonetheless, additionally indicated he was the one who collected and booked the proof within the case that day, contradicting LeFlore’s police report.
In an interview, Sanders mentioned proof recommended the transfer was deliberate, and never an accident on the a part of regulation enforcement, pointing to their alleged efforts to cover the drug’s motion from one case to a different.
“The one rational perspective is that [LeFlore is] hiding intentional misconduct,” Sanders mentioned. “LeFlore and Tiscareno way back misplaced the proper to assert harmless mistake.”
In line with Wednesday’s court docket submitting, Tiscareno was promoted to sergeant in November. LeFlore was promoted to sergeant in January.
Since a minimum of 2019, Sanders has raised points in court docket filings detailing proof mishandling within the division, prompting audits of the company and prison filings towards deputies.
Tiscareno and LeFlore have repeatedly appeared in these allegations and audits of the division’s dealing with, he mentioned.
“We realized that Tiscareno wrote dozens of false experiences about when he booked proof,” Sanders mentioned. “In spite of everything that, they not solely secretly moved proof into this defendant’s case, however made the acutely aware choice to not write a report or inform anybody exterior of their division what occurred. The neighborhood can assume the very worst.”
LeFlore had been tasked by the Sheriff’s Division in 2018 to evaluation allegations of proof mishandling within the company. An investigator on the time, he was then referred by the division for a prison investigation himself over allegations he had additionally improperly booked proof.
In earlier court docket filings, Sanders has alleged the division was conscious of allegations LeFlore booked proof late and wrote experiences by which he lied about when he booked proof when he was chosen to go the audit.
When the division referred the allegations surrounding LeFlore to the Orange County district lawyer’s workplace, it allegedly withheld a number of experiences of accusations that the investigator lied.
LeFlore has additionally been accused of illegally listening to privileged recorded telephone conversations between an lawyer and an inmate in 2017, in keeping with court docket data.
On Friday, an Orange County Superior Court docket choose ordered parts of LeFlore’s confidential personnel information to be turned over to protection attorneys within the case involving an inmate whom LeFlore arrested twice, KABC-TV Channel 7 reported.
An audit by the Sheriff’s Division additionally revealed 40 situations by which Tiscareno claimed to e book proof in experiences, but had not but executed so, in keeping with the court docket submitting.
It’s unclear what impact the proof of methamphetamine might have performed within the two circumstances to this point. Kelly has pleaded not responsible to 2 counts of possession of a managed substance with intent to promote.
The defendant within the different drug case pleaded responsible to 1 depend of being in possession of a managed substance with intent to promote. A second cost was dismissed, and he was sentenced to 2 years of probation, in keeping with court docket data.
Sheriff’s officers have mentioned up to now they’ve taken steps to enhance the way in which personnel are educated on the insurance policies and procedures for dealing with proof. Nevertheless, Sanders mentioned it continues to be a difficulty in prison circumstances, whereas penalties appear to be few.
