United States v. Rafael Jimenez-Rodriguez

MEMORANDUM

I.

Defendants have not demonstrated how the government’s failure to preserve the entire requested one-hour segment of surveillance footage was done in bad faith. See United States v. Sivilla, 714 F.3d 1168, 1172 (9th Cir.2013). Special Investigative Services Technician for the prison, Tymo-thy Wallace, preserved the footage he believed captured the entire altercation; the exculpatory value of the additional footage from the full one-hour requested was not apparent to Wallace. See id. In addition, Defendants have not shown how the loss prejudiced them. Id. The preserved footage showed De La Torre’s and Johnson’s demeanor and conduct prior to the incident. Wallace preserved De La Torre’s entire telephone conversation and other inmates offered testimony of the events leading up to the incident.

II.

The district court did not err, let alone plainly err, in failing to sua sponte provide the jury with an adverse inference instruction regarding the unpreserved footage. See United States v. Della Porta, 653 F.3d 1043, 1052 (9th Cir.2011). Defendants further have not shown they were prejudiced because of the unpreserved surveillance footage, so there is nothing to balance…