Border agent lawyer asks court to bar video evidence in murder case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


BY ASSOCIATED PRESS | March 21, 2017 @ 5:02 am






TUCSON, Ariz. — The attorney for a Border Patrol agent charged with second-degree murder in the fatal cross-border shooting of a Mexican teen is asking the court to bar video evidence, saying the agency didn’t hold on to original copies of the footage.

Attorney Sean Chapman filed the motion earlier this month asking a judge to exclude the video and re-creations. Chapman says the copies are “highly compressed and deeply flawed.”

The motion was filed in the case against Lonnie Swartz, who faces trial later this year for the October 2012 shooting of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

Swartz is accused of firing through the border fence into Nogales, Sonora, and striking Elena Rodriguez about 10 times. He says Elena Rodriguez threw rocks at him, endangering his life. But the boy’s family says he was just walking home after a game of basketball with friends.



Read more: http://ktar.com/story/1499758/border-agent-lawyer-asks-court-to-bar-video-evidence-in-murder-case/

[cstanleytech]

1. I dont think the videos should be barred.

The defense should be given the time and resources to investigate where if in any places said video is inaccurate but alot of the evidence on the video should still be intact more than enough to allow its use by the prosecution.

[Orrex]

2. Well, if Rodriguez threw rocks over a fence...

I can certainly see why the brave Swartz felt compelled to fire randomly through the fence in response.

I mean, what else could he do in that case except try to murder a child?

[PoiBoy]

3. So the agency was in possession of a video...

showing an officer involved shooting and they "didn't hold onto original copies of the footage"..?

WTF..?

I thought it was protocol to preserve any and all evidence in a case like this... pretty clever to make copies, destroy the original, hand over copies to the Plaintiff, then claim that the copies are “highly compressed and deeply flawed.”

[Sorceress]

4. Yes, I wish to know just why the agency didn't

hold on to the video. That needs to be investigated.