United States v. Zaragoza-Moreira, 2015 WL 1219535 (C.A.9 (Cal.) Mar. 18, 2015)

Key Insight: Court reversed and remanded case to the district court with directions to dismiss indictment in this criminal case after finding that Homeland Security Investigations agent acted in bad faith and in violation of defendant?s due process rights in failing to preserve video footage of defendant the agent knew to be of exculpatory value to the defendant, which the court found was established by a transcript of the agent?s interview with the defendant. The court also noted that the government?s failure to take action in response to a letter from defense counsel to the Assistant United States Attorney requesting preservation of the video tapes related to the defendant?s arrest or events leading to the arrest was ?particularly disturbing,? but declined to decide whether that failure also constituted bad faith given that they had already found bad faith on the part of the HSI agent.

Nature of Case: Criminal

Electronic Data Involved: Video footage