D.A. Ordered Not to Destroy Case Files

A Superior Court judge Friday issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office from continuing to destroy misdemeanor case files that are less than 2 years old.

The action was taken at the request of a group of defense lawyers, who contend that prosecutors’ legal files must be preserved in the event that they might contain information that could result in the acquittal of defendants who were wrongly convicted.

In December, an injunction was issued temporarily barring the district attorney from destroying felony files. A full-scale trial on the matter has yet to be scheduled. In a deposition filed for Friday’s hearing, a deputy district attorney testified that his office might have inadvertently dumped felony files.

According to the testimony of Deputy Dist. Atty. James Jacobs, the separating and classifying of misdemeanor and felony records has been unreliable, and some felony files have been destroyed with misdemeanor ones.

Deputy County Counsel Lane Brown, who represents the district attorney’s office, said that a handful of felony records may have been accidentally destroyed. But the judge based his decision not on the mistakes but on a government code preventing destruction of any records less than 2 years old.