Missoula Municipal Court Judge Marie Anderson ruled against Dr. Walt Peschel at a court hearing on Friday, leaving the misdemeanor charge intact, and scheduled a jury trial for next week.
Peschel, 66, was hospitalized for three days after his arrest, during which he was tackled by an officer. He contends police were overzealous and rough while he was trying to aid his neighbor - an armed suicidal woman who had threatened to kill herself if Peschel left her side.
Officials with the Missoula Police Department say Peschel was profane and obstinate, and contributed to a dangerous situation by refusing to follow orders. The neighbor later killed herself after being released from medical treatment.
At the center of the dispute is missing video footage of the altercation, which numerous police officials say they downloaded and viewed before the digital file vanished, apparently due to some sort of data corruption.
The police department began using a new dash-mounted digital video system in late July or early August, officials said. The video camera used in Peschel's case malfunctioned after transferring data from a flash card onto a computer hard drive.
According to Assistant City Attorney Andrew Scott, about 70 unrelated videos were also lost due to the glitch.
“The best explanation is we don't know what happened,” Scott said.
But Peschel's lawyers argue that the missing video footage is critical to their client's defense. The police department's inability to produce the video, they say, is a violation of Peschel's right to due process.
At an earlier hearing on the motion to dismiss, Peschel's attorneys showed that a Missoula police officer on paid administrative leave was the last person to access the missing video footage. Officer Jason Huntsinger, who police say is on leave for reasons not related to Peschel's case, denied erasing the video footage.
Cage Urquhart, a computer specialist for the police department, testified at the initial hearing that the files had likely been deleted by someone with a high level of computer savvy.
But Urquhart testified again at Friday's hearing that he found no trace of the files having been deleted. Urquhart also said there was no indication that a file-scrubbing program was ever installed.
Judge Anderson ruled that the evidence was not destroyed intentionally, and ordered that jury selection begin on Feb. 13 at 1 p.m.
Peschel's attorneys have mounted an affirmative defense for their client, and will argue at trial that Peschel violated the law out of necessity, in order to protect the woman's life.
Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)