The trial court denied a Pitchess (Pitchess v. Superior Court (1974) 11 Cal.3d 531) motion but failed to make a record of the documents it had reviewed in camera. When circumstances lead the reviewing Court of Appeal to believe it had not been supplied with all the documents the trial court had reviewed, it ordered the custodian of records to supply the officers entire personnel file. The Supreme Court held it was error to order production of the officers complete personnel file, since the specific request sought only documents relating to use of force or incidents of untruthfulness, as well as psychiatric records. Also, the Court of Appeal should have ordered the trial court to augment the record with the evidence it had considered. However, the Supreme Court elected not to remand because it too had reviewed the entire personnel record and found nothing responsive to the motion.
Case Summaries