Q: Custody of evidence and accurately logged evidence issues. How accurate does the sheriff department have to be?
A deputy from a county where my mailbox is located gets a warrant for the address. The house is about 3/4 of a mile away in the neighboring county. The evidence collected out of the residence was taken to the sheriff dept. The case was dismissed w/o prejudice over jurisdiction. The county the house is in court orders the release of the evidence to the prosecutor and he decided to charge me in that county. Who should have the evidence in their possession at this point? Why would it be admissable since it was taken by the deputy out of jurisdiction? The state Police was there for assistance but it was stored handled and logged by the sheriff's department. Several items logged as totes with assorted this and that but contents not logged specifically. Amounts of different items don't match from one county to the other or match citation. Discovery paper work looks to be just copied from one county to the other. Description of property seized is inaccurate. Can it dismiss the charges?
A: It heavily depends on circumstances specific to your case. It may be possible to use a chain of custody issue to get the evidence itself excluded from any trial. However, if the warrant was issued, even on incorrect information or outright falsehoods, in many states the officer may still execute the warrant and if the chain of custody is intact (each evidentiary storage location logged it all in and out correctly, every officer who handled it did the same) it may still be useable. It would be an issue for a local trial attorney to take a look at, and potentially grounds for a motion to suppress that evidence or even to keep the prosecutor from mentioning it at all, if there is in fact an issue with the way it was collected and/or stored. For more specifics, you would need to speak with a local attorney about the rules of evidence in your jurisdiction and the specifics of the evidence in your case, as each state is different and no two cases are exactly alike.
Timothy Denison agrees with this answer
A: Highly unlikely the chain of custody is going to stay intact. It is difficult enough for one agency to properly maintain the chain, much less two agencies. Your lawyer should be able to get that evidence suppressed.
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