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Newsletters
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OFFICER PREVAILS IN APPEAL OF BEING
PLACED IN “BRADY ALERT SYSTEM”
By: John A. Turner
Lackie, Dammeier & McGill APC
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In December of 2002 the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office issued special directive 02-07 entitled Possible Brady Material in the Possession of Law Enforcement and special directive 02-08 entitled Brady Protocol. These special directives along with the District Attorney’s Brady Compliance Division Operations Manuel set the Brady Policy and Brady Protocol for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. During the months prior to December 2002, Dieter C. Dammeier and John A. Turner of the Law Officers of Lackie, Dammeier & McGill APC met several times with the District Attorney, Steve Cooley and members of his senior staff in order to ensure the rights of police officers were not compromised by the District Attorney’s proposed polices. The District Attorney on the other hand was attempting to balance his office’s prosecutorial obligations under the Brady decision and officer privacy rights in their personnel records.
Special directive 02-08 establishes the procedures for notifying the Brady Compliance Division of potential Brady information and establishes the Brady Alert System. The Brady Alert System is a computer-based system, which includes both known historical and current Brady information on police officers. According to this directive the only information from an employee’s personnel file to be included in this automated system is that which is received pursuant to a Pitchess Motion, where a court has released information without a protective order prohibiting dissemination of the material or pursuant to an investigation resulting in a criminal charge filed against the employee. A decision whether or not to include a police officer into the Brady Compliance Division Brady Alert System will be made by members of the Brady Compliance Division after there has been an investigation of the allegations either by the police officer’s agency, another law enforcement agency or by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office Justice System Integrity Division.
Once the decision has been made by the Brady Compliance Division to place a police officer into the Brady Alert System the officer has a right to access and appeal information to be included in the Brady Alert System. A letter will be sent directly to the police officer from the District Attorneys Office informing the officer of the rights and procedures to appeal being placed into the Brady Alert System and the right to access and review materials upon which the decision was made.
A police officer client, whose name and agency will remain anonymous for the obvious reasons, received one such letter. The letter from the District Attorney’s office informed the officer that a decision had been made by the Brady Compliance Division to place him in the Brady Alert System for an incident which occurred many years ago in which there was no administrative allegations sustained, no discipline imposed and there were no criminal charges filed. The case was assigned to John A. Turner who drafted and filed an Opposition Brief opposing the decision to place the officer into the Brady Alert System.
On November 17, 2003, Lackie, Dammeier & McGill APC was notified by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office that upon review of the record and our Opposition Brief, it cannot be concluded that substantial evidence exists to support the determination by the Brady Compliance Division that our client should be placed into the Brady Alert System. Accordingly, the decision by the Brady Compliance Division was vacated and as a result the officer will not be placed into the Brady Alert System. John A. Turner was very pleased to receive that information and pass it along to the officer believing that it was a fair and just decision and also hoping that it brought some comfort, peace of mind, and closure to an incident, which should not have occurred in the first place.
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