Cop Fakes Body Cam Footage, Prosecutors Drop Drug Charges (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Prosecutors in Pueblo, Colorado are dropping felony drug and weapon-possession charges after an officer involved in the case said he staged body cam footage so he could walk "the courts through" the vehicle search that led to the arrest. The development means that defendant Joseph Cajar, 36, won't be prosecuted on allegations of heroin possession and of unlawful possession of a handgun. The evidence of the contraband was allegedly found during a search of Cajar's vehicle, which was towed after he couldn't provide an officer registration or insurance during a traffic stop. Officer Seth Jensen said he found about seven grams of heroin and a .357 Magnum in the vehicle at the tow yard. But the actual footage of the search that he produced in court was a reenactment of the search, the officer told prosecutors.

Comments

Re:Did the court know it was a reenactment?

[UnknowingFool]

If the court knew it was a reenactment then that's one thing, but if the officer attempted to pass-off the footage as legitimate then he needs to be found in-contempt.

From the the source article it seems that the prosecutor did not know at first. It came out only after a prosecutor noticed some discrepancies between the body cam footage and the report and asked the officer to clarify.

Jensen replied back, saying, "For the search, the body cam shows different than the report because it was. Prior to turning my body cam on I conducted the search. Once I found the (expletive referring to evidence), I stepped back, called (a fellow officer), then activated my body cam and walked the courts through it."

Mayer then replied back, “Was that in the report? If not you’ve got to write a supplement explaining that your body cam was off during the search and that the body cam that does exist is a reenactment.”

Now I have to give props to the prosecutor for alerting the defense and the court about it. They could have buried it.

Has making false statements to police ever been used against the police? Seems that it should qualify if an officer lies about the circumstances in official reports.

There is now an investigation and we'll see. Most likely no. The problem is that since it was "re-enacted" without disclosing the fact gives the appearance that it could have been planted. If the officer had turned on his body cam right after and merely declared "I found this gun here a minute ago. . ." most people would have given the officer the benefit of a doubt.