Part of police tape erased

[struggle4progress]

Published: Jan 18, 2008 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 18, 2008 02:41 AM

... The tape, with a 10-minute audio gap at the beginning, was turned over as evidence in a cocaine trafficking case still winding its way through court ...

Jim Dornfried, the prosecutor who checked into the matter, said the arresting officer told him he had another officer erase 10 minutes of audio at the beginning of the tape because it contained a cell phone conversation with his wife.

Dornfried told the officer and others in the police department that it was not up to them to decide what is and is not evidence in a state that requires investigators to open their entire case files -- written, visual and oral -- to the accused.

The full tape, Dornfried added, has now been turned over, and the District Attorney's Office has run it through a computer program to make sure it has not been altered ...

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/durham/story/888612.html