Evidence is a delicate component of many criminal cases. If evidence is mishandled, it could have serious repercussions for defendants. The police are responsible for collecting and maintaining evidence. If they somehow mishandled it, your attorney may help you challenge the evidence in court.
If you believe the police have mishandled evidence in your case, alert your lawyer immediately. In many cases, defense attorneys will contact prosecutors about the mishandled evidence. Sometimes, prosecutors would rather err on the side of caution and not use the evidence, as doing so could raise serious ethical concerns. How the police mishandle evidence may determine how we try to correct the problem. The police might lose track of the evidence or damage it, leaving us unable to examine it as we build your defense.
Call our Salt Lake City criminal defense lawyers at Overson & Bugden at (801) 758-2287 to receive a private, free review of your case.
What to Do if the Police Mishandle Evidence in Your Case
While the police are typically in charge of collecting and maintaining evidence as part of criminal investigations, they do not always do a good job. When the police mishandle evidence, there may be dire consequences for unsuspecting defendants. Your attorney can help you determine if evidence has been mishandled and hopefully prevent it from being used against you.
The first thing to do if you suspect that the police have mishandled evidence in your case is to talk to your lawyer. Your attorney may communicate with prosecutors to determine if they know what happened. If not, prosecutors should be informed. In many cases, prosecutors do not want to use tainted evidence, as it is unethical and likely to be challenged in court anyway.
If the prosecutor does not listen to or does not believe you, our Utah criminal defense attorneys can file a motion to challenge the evidence. We should present a compelling argument as to why the mishandled evidence is inadmissible or presents an unfair burden to you.
When to Challenge Evidence That Was Mishandled by the Police
If we believe that the police have mishandled evidence in your case, we should challenge the evidence as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the harder it might be to prevent the evidence from being used against you.
Sometimes, if we do not raise certain issues in a timely manner, the court may consider the issues “waived.” This tends to occur when a defendant is aware that evidence was mishandled but does not raise the issue until much later. A judge may question why you waited so long to say something and consider the issue waived.
Even if the issue is not waived, it is better to address it before the evidence can be introduced in court. Once a jury hears the evidence, it may be difficult for them to exclude it from their deliberations, even if a judge instructs them to do so.
How the Police Might Mishandle Evidence
The police might mishandle evidence in various ways. Sometimes, the evidence can still be used, although we should treat it as highly suspect. Other times, the evidence might be rendered inadmissible, and we may file a motion to prevent it from being used in court.
If investigators mishandle certain types of forensic evidence, it may be compromised, and testing results may be inconclusive. This is not unusual in DNA testing. Suppose certain forensic evidence that will be tested for DNA is mishandled and stored alongside your own genetic samples (e.g., blood, hair). In that case, the evidence might be contaminated, yielding a false positive.
Breaks in the chain of custody might also make evidence highly suspect. The chain of custody is how authorities keep track of where evidence is stored and who has custody of it. If the chain is broken, we might not know where the evidence was for a period of time, and it could have been altered without our knowledge.
In some cases, evidence is completely lost. This becomes a serious problem if that evidence is believed to be exculpatory and could have helped us defend you.
What Happens to Evidence Mishandled by the Police in Utah?
When evidence is mishandled, it might be less trustworthy or even inadmissible. As such, it could be challenged and suppressed. We can push the authorities to prove that the evidence is unaffected and still admissible in court. If they cannot, we can file a motion to suppress the evidence, so it is not used against you in court.
It is also possible that no motion to suppress is necessary. Prosecutors might choose not to use the evidence if it cannot be trusted because it was mishandled. Using mishandled evidence may create a serious ethical issue, and prosecutors might err on the side of caution and not use the evidence.
How Do I Know if Utah Police Mishandled Evidence?
To determine if evidence was mishandled, a great place to begin is the chain of custody. Is there any period where the evidence cannot be accounted for? Remember, the chain of custody is a written record, and it may document gaps in the known whereabouts of important evidence.
We may also examine how the evidence was collected. Did the police violate your rights when they seized the evidence? Was the evidence collected in a way that made it less trustworthy (e.g., the evidence was damaged when it was collected by the police)?
Another sign that evidence was mishandled is if we did not learn about it until much later. This may be a serious discovery violation. The police might have collected evidence, misplaced it, and only rediscovered it at the last minute. This may interfere with your ability to build a strong defense.
What Do I Do if I Was Convicted Based on Evidence Mishandled by the Police?
If you are convicted based on evidence that was mishandled by the police in Utah, we can immediately file an appeal.
On appeal, we can challenge your conviction based on the mishandled evidence. Our appeal may be much stronger if we can show how the mishandled evidence was somehow tainted and should not have been permitted in court in the first place.
If the appellate court agrees with us, you might be granted a new trial.
Contact Our Utah Criminal Defense Lawyers for Legal Support
Call our Ogden, UT criminal defense lawyers at Overson & Bugden at (801) 758-2287 to receive a private, free review of your case.
