Police Show Ordered to Turn Over Tapes

A reality-based television police show was ordered Monday to release tapes on a quadruple homicide investigation after a judge found they documented questionable police tactics vital to the defense.

“After what I saw there, I felt that I must release these tapes,” Commissioner Gerald Richardson said. He granted a lawyer for A & E Detectives a stay until January to allow him time to file an appeal.

The show had opposed the release of the 13 hours of footage, arguing that California’s shield law, which protects journalists as they gather news, protects the tapes from confiscation.

Richardson said the tapes show officers discussing how to delay the release of a document after speaking to a prosecutor and plotting to keep a witness--the defendant’s son--from being interviewed by the defense. That evidence, he said, was too important to keep from the defense.

Sandi Nieves, 34, was arrested in July in the deaths of her four daughters and for allegedly trying to kill her son in their Saugus home.

She is accused of shutting the girls in the kitchen as the room filled with natural gas from the stove, then setting the house on fire.

Deputy Public Defender Howard Waco said he has been trying to get the tapes for weeks, since he first learned that a television crew was shadowing the homicide detectives as they were called out to the scene and investigated the case.

The show’s lawyer, Donald Gordon, argued that the release of the tapes would kill a genre of police shows where crews are allowed to follow officers and detectives into crime scenes and other normally restricted areas.

“There will be no more behind-the-scene types of shows,” Gordon said. “The law enforcement agencies will not allow the cameras access because everything will be discoverable.”

Richardson said he was concerned when the show’s producer, Lisa Higgins, told him she could no longer do her job if the tapes are released, but that wasn’t enough to overcome the defendant’s right to see them.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Barshop said the tape should have no effect on the case. The document police allegedly said they wanted to keep from Waco, a letter written by the defendant, was among the first pieces of evidence handed over to the defense, Barshop said.

Nieves’ son, David, 14, was injured in the fire that killed his sisters, requiring three days’ hospitalization for smoke inhalation. He has declined to speak to his mother’s lawyer ever since.

Waco contends that the videotapes may prove that the investigating detectives influenced his decision. Richardson said Monday that that issue should be reviewed after the release of the tapes.

But Barshop said the teen is afraid of his mother and has turned down numerous requests to talk to her or her lawyer or assist her defense in any way.

The killings came just before Nieves was due in court to negotiate custody of two daughters with their father, her second husband.