Prosecutor Investigated for Allegedly Destroying Evidence : Courts: She reportedly destroyed a photograph found in jacket of man acquitted of murder charge.

A veteran prosecutor in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is being investigated for allegedly destroying evidence in a murder trial--a recent case in which an old burrito helped to acquit the defendant.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine Gosney, during jury deliberations last month in the murder trial of Edward Vasquez, told a judge she had destroyed a photograph of a little boy found in Vasquez’s jacket because it might have created sympathy for the defendant, Vasquez’s defense attorney, Jay Jaffe, said Wednesday.

Gosney’s revelation July 27 came as Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg was considering whether to reopen the argument portion of the trial because of something else found in Vasquez’s jacket: a 2-year-old burrito.

Jaffe had argued that the burrito, discovered in a pocket only after the jury had adjourned to deliberate their verdict, substantiated part of Vasquez’s alibi. The green jacket had been seized as evidence when Vasquez was arrested in 1988 on charges of shooting a security guard.

After hearing about the burrito, Weisberg did reopen the trial, the burrito was entered into evidence and, ultimately, Vasquez was acquitted.

But Gosney’s admission in court that she had destroyed the photograph, which was inscribed with the words “To my uncle Eddie,” led the district attorney’s office to open an investigation, according to Jaffe. The defense lawyer said an investigator from the district attorney’s office interviewed him earlier this month as a witness.

Jaffe said Gosney told the judge the photo fell out of a pocket when she examined the jacket before the trial began.

“I think it was an important piece of evidence,” Jaffe said. “(Whether) the prosecutor felt the piece of evidence had a sympathetic effect in favor of the defense, that’s an issue the judge has to decide rather than her.”

Gosney has also reportedly been suspended pending outcome of the investigation. She could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

District attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons declined to comment.

“It’s a personnel matter (and) I can’t comment,” Gibbons said.

Vasquez, 23, had been accused of killing a security guard in September, 1988. The prosecution had argued that Vasquez, wearing a white T-shirt, shot the guard in a Central Los Angeles parking lot.

But Vasquez, a student at Cal State Los Angeles, had maintained that he was wearing the jacket and standing some distance from the shooting--buying a burrito.