Camera Crew’s Tapes at Fore of Legal Battle

Footage of a quadruple murder investigation, shot for a real-life police show, may end up as defense evidence in the case.

After viewing 13 hours of raw videotape taken by an Arts & Entertainment Network crew, Municipal Court Commissioner Gerald Richardson said Thursday that he may turn over to the defense next month images of sheriff’s detectives engaged in questionable tactics.

Network lawyers are opposing the release, arguing that California’s shield law, which protects journalists as they gather news, protects the tapes from being confiscated.

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.

Deputy Public Defender Howard Waco said he has been trying to obtain the tapes for weeks, since he found out that a camera crew from A&E; was at the crime scene moments after his client, Sandi Nieves, allegedly killed her four daughters and tried to kill her son.

The footage was shot for the network’s police drama, “A&E; Detectives,” which followed the investigators around as they worked the case.

“I saw two things on that tape that were upsetting,” Richardson said. “Primarily, the two detectives talking about keeping that little boy away from the defense.”

Richardson said he would watch the tapes again to decide which portions should be turned over, and would allow A&E; lawyers time to file an appeal before doing so.

Nieves, 34, was arrested in July on murder charges in the deaths of her four daughters and on an attempted murder charge for allegedly trying to kill her son in their Saugus home.

The Sheriff’s Department detectives who investigated the case could not be reached for comment on the tapes. A department spokesman said he was unaware of the allegations.

“If somebody makes a formal allegation of misconduct, the Sheriff’s Department will conduct an investigation,” spokesman Jim Hellmold said. “Beyond that, we cannot say anything.”

A spokesman for A&E; could not be reached for comment.

Waco called the allegations “a violation of law and due process.”

If the tapes show the investigators conspiring to keep a witness from him, Waco said he may file charges against the officers.

“Apparently they went ego-wild for the camera,” Waco said. “That’s getting close to the line of dissuading a witness to testify and tampering with the judicial system.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Barshop, who is prosecuting Nieves, said he had not seen the tapes and has no knowledge of officers trying to keep information from the defense.

He said the allegations should have no effect on the case. The document in question, a letter written by the defendant, was among the first pieces of evidence given to Waco, 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.

Barshop dismissed that allegation. He said he personally asked the boy, without detectives present, whether he wanted to talk to defense lawyers or his mother.

“He said: ‘No, I don’t want anything to do with her, I’m afraid of her,’ ” Barshop said.

The killings came just before Nieves was due in court to negotiate custody of the two younger girls, Kristl and Jaqlene Folden, 5 and 7, with their father, Nieves’ second husband. The older girls, Nikolet and Rashel Folden-Nieves, were from her first marriage.