People v. Kladis

Defendant was charged with DUI, and court granted Defendant's motion for sanctions against the State for destroying the in-car videotape of Defendant's arrest. Videotape was destroyed by Northlake Police Department, per its 30-day automatic purge policy, even though Defendant had requested of State, within five days of arrest, that it be produced. Court barred State from presenting testimony of arresting officer for the time period contained on the videotape. Defendant relied on State's failure to object to request to produce, and State's agreement to produce tape, and thus Defendant did not issue a subpoena for the tape or request a court order. Court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that tape was discoverable and that its destruction after Defendant had requested it was a discovery violation. Sanction was limited and proportionate to the discovery violation. (O'BRIEN and NEVILLE, concurring.)