After failing to submit dashboard camera footage of the drunk-driving arrest of Española District 4 City Councilor Robert Seeds’ daughter for nearly six months, Española Police have now located the recording and the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office wants a judge to reconsider the case.
Española Police Lt. Christian Lopez said Oct. 25 that no video of Angelica Seeds’ May 14 arrest had been entered into evidence. He reversed that statement Monday, saying the video was turned in Oct. 27.
Lopez said the arresting officer’s dashboard camera was full, but assisting officer Martin Vigil was able to turn on his camera to record the arrest. Vigil went on leave following the arrest, and the vehicle was issued to another officer, Lopez said.
“The video was still in that car,” he said.
It was turned in to the Department after an Oct. 27 Rio Grande SUN report pointed out the missing tape, Lopez said.
“It was never a big deal,” Lopez said. “The (district attorney) never even asked us for it.”
He said prosecutors never formally asked for the tape through a motion for discovery. The only person who asked to see the video was Angelica Seeds’ mother, Laura Seeds, he said. Lopez said Laura Seeds never saw the video, nor has any other member of the public.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Pustay said Seeds’ defense attorney Margaret Kegel, of Santa Fe, had filed a motion to dismiss the charges against her client because the video was not entered into evidence. This motion so far has not appeared in the court file on Angelica Seeds.
Pustay said the prosecution was going to file a motion asking the judge to reconsider the case. He refused to say if that was because video of the arrest had surfaces, or whether or not prosecutors had a copy of the video.
Judge George Anaya could not be reached for comment as of Monday. Numerous calls to Pustay’s boss and additional calls to Kegel were also not returned.
An online court records database indicated Angelica Seeds’ case was still pending as of Tuesday. She faces charges of aggravated drunk driving and fleeing a police officer.
Records Fight
Contrary to Lopez’s assertion, Laura Seeds isn’t the only one who asked to see video of the arrest. The SUN formally requested to inspect the video Oct. 25, and Lopez initially refused to release it last week.
“I will relinquish a copy of the video as soon as I receive a disposition on the case,” he wrote via email. “If the case was dismissed (and) will not be refiled in the future, we will release the video as soon as probable. If the case is still pending adjudication or was dismissed with intention on being refiled we will not release the video as it is potential evidence in the prosecution case.”
Lopez said he had a copy of the video ready for release, but he wanted to clear it first with the district attorney’s office.
But New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Sarah Welsh said whether an investigation is open or closed is not the test in the law on whether a record is public; rather, it’s whether releasing the video would compromise confidential sources or confidential targets of investigations.
Statute exempts from public inspection “law enforcement records that reveal confidential sources, methods, information or individuals accused but not charged with a crime.”
Welsh added that because the video may be considered an original record of entry that it has to be released.
For example, the Albuquerque Police Department always releases dashboard camera videos, she said.
Traffic tickets, accident reports, and information that appears in dispatch logs and 911 tapes are also considered original records of entry and must be available for public inspection, an attorney general’s guidebook on the state Inspection of Public Records Act states.
Lopez provided the video Nov. 9. Excerpts of it can be viewed through the Rio Grande SUN‘s Youtube account by clicking here.