Local News in Brief : Trial for Ex-Prosecutor
A former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney has been ordered to face trial on charges that he falsified evidence and lied to a judge while prosecuting a drug case in November, 1986.
Walter R. Tucker III, the son of Compton Mayor Walter R. Tucker, is accused of altering a document to show that he had received a set of photographs three weeks later than he actually had. He allegedly was trying to keep from having the photographs thrown out as evidence because he had failed to make them available to defense lawyers in a timely manner. He is also accused of lying to a judge to cover his actions.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip Mueller, who was Tucker’s supervisor, testified at a preliminary hearing before Municipal Judge Lourdes G. Baird that the lawyer admitted altering the documents because he was afraid of losing the case. The five defendants were later found innocent, but not because of Tucker’s alleged misconduct, a district attorney’s spokesman has said.
Tucker was fired from his prosecutor job in December, 1986.
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