City of Sacramento v. Municipal Court for Sacramento Judicial District

On January 21, 1977, real party in interest (hereafter Pope) was arrested by Officers Aurich and Souza of the Sacramento City Police Department for wilfully resisting, delaying, or obstructing them in the performance of their duties, a violation of Penal Code section 148. Pope was subsequently charged in Sacramento Municipal Court with this misdemeanor.

For the purposes of asserting self-defense and for the possible impeachment of prosecution witnesses, Pope sought to discover what citizen complaints of excessive force or violence had been lodged against the two arresting officers during their employment as policemen. Such records were sought on the ground they would reveal the names of persons who could give testimony tending to show the officers had a propensity to use excessive force in making arrests.

A declaration of former Sacramento Chief of Police, William J. Kinney, was filed in the action which showed that on August 13, 1976, he had ordered destruction of all police department internal investigation files concerning investigations which had been completed prior to July 1974. All such files were destroyed, except those which resulted in the termination or…