VOLUSIA EXPOSED

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Is a U.S. Supreme Court decision being ignored by the local State Attorney's office?

Does the recent David Beauprez case identify two "Brady Cops" within the Seventh Judicial Circuit?

Since the Seventh Judicial Circuit's State Attorney (R.J. Larizza) has gone on record, that his office does NOT maintain a "Brady List", how will Mr. Larizza ensure that his office complies with the Brady mandate?

Updated
February 23, 2012

"Police corruption is like cockroaches,
if you discover one case of corruption, know there are a hundred more hiding behind the walls"- VolusiaExposed.Com

"A liar, after all, is a liar"- Circuit Court Judge Joseph Will - Volusia County, Florida

UPDATED - February 23, 2012
Judge Joseph Will's Order - Beauprez's Arrest Report - Chief Chitwood's Letter to Judge
Now available for review

Early this year, VolusiaExposed.Com became aware that many State Attorney offices within Florida and across the nation maintain what is commonly referred to as a "Brady List". This list is development and maintained by each particular State Attorney office, in order to effectively comply with the mandates of a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision .

In Brady, the court ruled that the prosecutor has the responsibility to give the defendant any and all (evidence that tends to prove the suspect not guilty). This exculpatory evidence includes, past histories of police officers, whereas, the veracity of those officers has come into question. In short, if a police officer makes an arrest, the defense has the right to know, if that arresting officer has moral character skeletons hiding in his / her career closet. A past history of providing false or misleading statements would be reportable under Brady.

When VolusiaExposed.Com became aware that two other Florida investigative websites had successfully secured and posted these "Brady Lists" from the 10th and 17th Judicial Circuit's State Attorney's offices, we decided that our readers would enjoy a review of the "Brady List" from the Seventh Judicial Circuit.

VolusiaExposed.Com made a public record request to the the Office of R.J. Larizza, the Seventh Judicial Circuit's State Attorney, for a copy of his "Brady List". Unfortunately, we were advised in the below January 13, 2012 response that the Seventh Judicial Circuit does not maintain a "Brady List".

VolusiaExposed.Com is left wondering how Mr. Larizza's office tracks and properly reports Brady declarations to defense attorneys, if they do not maintain any type of "Brady List", that would identify the police officers that have reportable events attached to them? Surely, the public is not expected to believe that someone in the State Attorney office is charged with remembering all the Brady material that is reportable against all the law enforcement officers within the Seventh Judicial Circuit? This is just not logical, this information must be stored in documents or on computer files somewhere, and if so, this would, by definition be a "Brady List" and obtainable via a public record request.

VolusiaExposed.Com holds the opinion that either Mr. Larizza's office is not being straight forward regarding the existence of a "Brady List", or they are not in compliance with the Brady mandate. Either which way, this is a most disturbing development within the local State Attorney's office.

VolusiaExposed.Com further has the opinion that Mr. Larrizza's position on "Brady" is most likely guided by politics, rather then by the law. We believe that the below Daytona Beach News Journal article lightly touches on the political rationales of why Mr. Larizza fails to apparently maintain a "Brady List". Mr. Larizza is heavily indebted to the local law enforcement community for his 2008 upset victory over former State Attorney, John Tanner. The net effect of a "Brady List" is, that it quickly identifies potentially bad cops. VolusiaExposed.Com would imagine that some police agencies and their unions wish to avoid those identifications.

For more information about VolusiaExposed's earlier attempts to secure the Seventh Circuit's "Brady List", we invite you to read our original article on the subject.

Ironically, shortly after VolusiaExposed made issue of the Seventh Circuit's non-existent "Brady List", a local judge apparently has identified two Daytona Beach police officers, that most probably will meet the definitions of Brady, causing the State Attorney to make Brady declarations regarding any future criminal cases they become attached to. According, to the below media articles, Circuit Court Judge Will had concerns that two Daytona Beach officers had lied regarding a drug arrest.

VolusiaExposed.Com invites our readers to review Judge Will's Order regarding evidence suppression in the criminal case of Florida vs. David A. Beauprez (2011-35204-CFAES).

Even, Daytona Beach Police Chief Chitwood stated that the judge's ruling "impugned the integrity of (the) two officers", thus almost certainly creating future mandated Brady declarations on those officers for future criminal cases.

So, here is the $64,000 question that the local media has not addressed - who were the two arresting officers in the David Beauprez's arrest?

VolusiaExposed.Com has secured the Beauprez's arrest report (see below linked copy), commonly referred to as the 707 - and according to that document, the arresting officers were - Ofc. T. Martin and Sgt. Lee.

Since, our local State Attorney can not, or will not compile a "Brady List", VolusiaExposed.Com will start to compile our own list of suspected "Brady" police officers, with documentation (internal affairs reports, court records, arrest reports, etc.) to back up our suspicions. Since this list will be a forever work in progress, we invite our readers to check back often.