Judge Orders Calif. Detective to Turn Over Case File
PASADENA - A Superior Court judge Wednesday acknowledged that a Pasadena detective withheld crucial evidence from defense attorneys in a battery trial that resulted in a hung jury.
Judge Teri Schwartz ordered Pasadena police Officer Kevin Okamoto to give his complete file to attorney Michael Kraut, who represents Edwards Damas in the case.
"I want to make sure everything required by law has been provided," Schwartz said. "We found out in the trial not everything required by law had been provided."
Los Angeles County Sheriff's internal affairs investigators have opened a probe into Okamoto's actions. Okamoto declined to comment Wednesday.
Okamoto was transferred from the detective bureau to a patrol assignment in February. Pasadena police Chief Phillip Sanchez said the move was routine.
Damas is accused in the 2009 beating of an unruly customer at Wokcano, an after-hours night spot on South Fair Oaks Avenue. He was a bouncer at the time.
Kraut also alleges Okamoto violated Damas' constitutional right to remain silent by hiring a jail house snitch after Damas asked for a lawyer.
A contentious morning hearing in Schwartz's courtroom was repeatedly interrupted by objections from Alfonso Estrada, an attorney for the Pasadena Police Officers' Association representing Okamoto.
Prosecutor Brook White also interposed several objections to a line of questioning when Okamoto was on the stand. Kraut, a former deputy district attorney known for prosecuting LAPD officers in the Rampart case, has said he believes prosecutors turned a blind eye to Okamoto's misconduct.
"If the questions had been broader, the officer would have had to take the Fifth Amendment," Kraut said.
Speaking through Pasadena police Lt. Tracey Ibarra, White declined to comment.
Schwartz ultimately ruled that Kraut and Karla Sarabia, an attorney for Damas' co-defendant, will be allowed to review the entire case file.
Both believe Okamoto withheld reams of exculpatory evidence.
"There are witnesses whose interviews he didn't memorialize; he admitted under oath that he did so on purpose," Kraut said.
Steven Delossantos was convicted for his role in the 2009 melee, and now awaits sentencing. His lawyer, Sabaria, claims the Pasadena Police Department - not just Okamoto - failed to hand over the documents she has been requesting for two years.
"In this case, my experience has been nobody's going in and looking to see if we have everything," Sarabia said.
Under oath Wednesday, Okamoto admitted interviewing employees at the bar about the 2009 incident. He did not record the interviews or write a report.
"In my eyes it wasn't relevant," Okamoto said.
During Damas' original trial Okamoto offered up a similar answer as to why he didn't hand over contact information for a witness whose testimony would have likely vindicated Damas.
Damas and Delossantos will be back in court on July 12.
Pasadena Chief Sanchez said Monday he had opened an investigation into Okamoto's former partner, Keith Gomez, who allegedly threatened to kill a suspect.
That probe is looking at actions taken by both Okamoto and Gomez during an interrogation of Jamaul Harvey.
Harvey was arrested on suspicion of murder in 2007. The case was tried twice. There was a hung jury in the first trial. The second trial resulted in Harvey's acquittal.
In a signed declaration sent to Sanchez, an alternate juror in the second trial said she believed Gomez "invented evidence" against Harvey.
Gomez is the department's lead investigator in the officer-involved shooting of former Azusa High School football standout Kendrec McDade. Gomez has been named in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the department filed by McDade's family. The suit alleges the shooting is part of a pattern of abuse by the department and that the investigation "reeks" of a cover-up.
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