📄 Motion: videotape evidence (part 2) — Thursday, April 13, 1995
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\APR\13\MOTION-VIDEOTAPE-EVIDENCE-PART.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 56 of 167

Motion: videotape evidence (part 2)

Date: Thursday, April 13, 1995 • Utterances: 48
Judge Ito opened by confessing he accidentally erased five seconds of the KTLA tape while reviewing it in his chambers, pressing record instead of pause. He then ruled on videotape admissibility: allowing footage of Fung and Mazzola on both the paper bag and plastic bag trips, but sustaining the objection to the Vannatter arrival segment for lack of foundation. The foundation issue was mooted when a KABC reporter approached both sides with a time-coded tape corroborating the defense's sequencing theory, and the prosecution ultimately withdrew their objection to the Vannatter footage.
1 THE COURT:

Good afternoon, counsel.

2 MR. COCHRAN:

Good afternoon, your Honor.

3 THE COURT:

On the record. I would like to--all parties are present again. I would like to advise counsel during the course of my review of the tape this afternoon, which is what delayed our getting started, this afternoon I was reviewing tapes again in my chambers; and in reviewing the KTLA tape, Stan Chambers' report from June the 13th, 1994 and hitting the pause button to stop it at the time that the parties were coming out of the door at Rockingham, I hit the record button instead and I erased inadvertently five seconds of that videotape. So I would like counsel to look at the videotape and see if they think those seconds are critical.

I've had my staff contact KTLA, see if they can provide us with another duplicate copy of that news broadcast. They indicated they're looking for it, that it should be available, and I'll have two of my staff members go get it as soon as they confirm that it's available. But, Mr. Scheck, if you want to look at it and see if that's--if that footage is sufficient for your uses.

4 (Discussion held off the record between Defense counsel.)
5 MR. SCHECK:

Your Honor, I think that we--

6 THE COURT:

Noting that the pause and the record buttons are next to each on this remote control. I'll mark it as a Court's exhibit. I must say I'm thoroughly embarrassed by this.

7 MR. SCHECK:

Oh--well, I know I would do it. I'm that kind of klutz and we know you're not Rosemary Woods. So--I think we can certainly proceed with what we've got.

KEY QUOTE
8 THE COURT:

All right. You've reviewed it?

9 MR. SCHECK:

Yeah. I think--did Mr. Goldberg take a look? You want to take a look?

10 THE COURT:

I'm sorry?

11 MR. GOLDBERG:

So the ruling was--

12 THE COURT:

No, I haven't ruled yet. I'm just saying, is this sufficient for your uses here?

13 MR. GOLDBERG:

Your Honor, I didn't get a chance to see.

14 THE COURT:

All right. Mr. Harris, you want to run it with the Court's deletion?

15 (At 1:40 P.M., a videotape was played.)
16 (At 1:41 P.M., the playing of the videotape concluded.)
17 MR. SCHECK:

Your Honor, there's a--the reason I think it's--the reason I think it's sufficient is that we have that other tape that picks up with them walking down the driveway and this one shows them coming out of the house, and I'm--for all purposes, I'm sure that's fine.

18 THE COURT:

All right. I've just been advised that the--by the news director of KTLA that they have located the tape, they've dubbed a copy and I'm sending my staff to go get it in case we need a complete copy.

19 MR. SCHECK:

Well, okay. I think that actually since I'm going to begin with another matter that I estimate will take about 10 minutes, 15 minutes--but I'm assuming that before we get to this line and before we hit the videotapes, it may just be perfect timing.

20 THE COURT:

All right. The Court's ruling then as to the videotapes is as follows: I will allow the playing of the videotapes that depict Mr. Fung and Miss Mazzola on both trips, both the paper bag trip and the plastic bag trip. The Court finds a sufficient foundation has been laid for those. The Court sustains the objection to the Vannatter arrival segment on the basis of lack of foundation at this time.

21 MR. SCHECK:

Your Honor--

22 (Discussion held off the record between Defense counsel.)
23 MR. SCHECK:

Your Honor, maybe--

24 (Discussion held off the record between Defense counsel.)
25 THE COURT:

Well, the Court will--

26 MR. COCHRAN:

If the Court is--we have some additional information regarding foundation.

27 MR. NEUFELD:

We just got at lunch.

28 THE COURT:

You just got a--

29 MR. NEUFELD:

We just got additional information as much as did the People, your Honor, from a--

30 THE COURT:

You want to share that? Mr. Neufeld, does Mr. Scheck want to handle this or do you want to handle it?

31 MR. NEUFELD:

Only because I spoke to the reporter myself. It's up to you. If I may just to save time. We were approached as was the Prosecution by a gentleman named John North who is a reporter from KABC.

32 MR. SCHECK:

Excuse me, your Honor. Can Mr. Fung--

33 THE COURT:

Mr. Fung, why don't you wait outside.

34 (Mr. Fung exits the courtroom.)
35 MR. NEUFELD:

Somebody--he said he spoke to the Prosecution during the luncheon break.

36 (Discussion held off the record between Defense counsel and the Deputy District Attorney.)
37 THE COURT:

All right. Mr. Fung has withdrawn. Mr. Neufeld.

38 MR. NEUFELD:

Yeah. And Mr. North has handed me with a computer printout. He said that they went back and they checked their original cassette that was shot by their camera person that day, that afternoon, and it even has a time--it's time coded. And it was time coded and the time code he said was set by the camera operator. And it shows the time that each of these incidents occurred and it also shows the sequence in which they occurred, and it completely corroborates the sequence that we wanted to show to the witness; namely that first he's coming out carrying the paper bags, then Vannatter arrives--I'm sorry. Then they go back in, then Vannatter arrives and then they come out the second time and Fung has nothing in his hands and Mazzola is carrying the plastic bag. He gave me this printout. He said they intend to air it on the television, this evening in fact.

39 THE COURT:

Okay.

40 MR. NEUFELD:

Clearly if we had that person, that would provide any additional foundation.

41 THE COURT:

Yes, it would.

42 MR. NEUFELD:

Well--

43 MR. COCHRAN:

He's downstairs, your Honor.

44 THE COURT:

He probably is or on the 12th floor by now.

45 MR. COCHRAN:

We can get him.

46 THE COURT:

All right. But see, the problem is, we have the jury waiting. So let's proceed with what we have. You can lay the foundation. If you want to do that out of the presence of the jury, we'll do that.

47 MR. GOLDBERG:

Your Honor, given the Court's ruling on the other two videotapes, we'll draw our objection on the Vannatter tapes.

48 THE COURT:

All right. That settles that question. Proceed. Let's have the jury.

Temperature

procedural

Key Quotes (4)

Lance A. Ito
I hit the record button instead and I erased inadvertently five seconds of that videotape. I must say I'm thoroughly embarrassed by this.
The judge accidentally destroyed a portion of evidence he was reviewing, requiring KTLA to provide a duplicate copy.
Barry Scheck
Oh--well, I know I would do it. I'm that kind of klutz and we know you're not Rosemary Woods.
Scheck defuses the awkward moment with a Watergate reference, comparing Ito favorably to Nixon's secretary who famously erased 18.5 minutes of tape.
Lance A. Ito
I will allow the playing of the videotapes that depict Mr. Fung and Miss Mazzola on both trips, both the paper bag trip and the plastic bag trip. The Court sustains the objection to the Vannatter arrival segment on the basis of lack of foundation at this time.
The core ruling of the proceeding — partial admissibility that the defense immediately worked to expand.
Peter Neufeld
It shows the time that each of these incidents occurred and it also shows the sequence in which they occurred, and it completely corroborates the sequence that we wanted to show to the witness; namely that first he's coming out carrying the paper bags, then Vannatter arrives--I'm sorry. Then they go back in, then Vannatter arrives and then they come out the second time and Fung has nothing in his hands and Mazzola is carrying the plastic bag.
Neufeld describes newly obtained time-coded KABC footage that would establish foundation for the Vannatter segment and corroborate the defense's evidence-handling timeline.

Evidence (4)

Court's exhibit (unnumbered)
KTLA Stan Chambers news report from June 13, 1994, showing activity at Rockingham — partially erased by judge during review
marked as Court's exhibit; replacement copy obtained from KTLA
Informal
Videotapes of Dennis Fung and Andrea Mazzola on paper bag trip and plastic bag trip at Rockingham
ruled admissible
Informal
Videotape segment showing Vannatter's arrival at Rockingham
objection sustained for lack of foundation; prosecution later withdrew objection
Informal
KABC time-coded footage from June 13, 1994 with computer printout of time codes, showing sequence of bag trips and Vannatter arrival
introduced informally by defense via reporter John North; not yet played

Notable Exchanges (2)

Lance A. ItoBarry Scheck
After Ito confessed to accidentally erasing the tape, Scheck immediately reassured him it was fine and cracked a Rosemary Woods joke, allowing the hearing to proceed without conflict.
light/strategic
Peter NeufeldLance A. ItoHank Goldberg
Neufeld revealed mid-hearing that KABC reporter John North had approached both sides during lunch with time-coded footage corroborating defense sequencing. Ito acknowledged it would solve the foundation problem but prioritized the waiting jury. Goldberg then withdrew the prosecution's Vannatter objection entirely.
strategic

Light Moments (2)

Barry Scheck
Scheck responded to Ito's embarrassed confession about erasing the tape by saying 'we know you're not Rosemary Woods' — a reference to Nixon's secretary blamed for the Watergate tape gap.
Lance A. Ito
Ito noted dryly that the reporter who had the foundation-laying tape was 'probably on the 12th floor by now' when Cochran offered to go get him.

Witness Demeanor

(Discussion held off the record between Defense counsel.)
(At 1:40 P.M., a videotape was played.)
(At 1:41 P.M., the playing of the videotape concluded.)
(Mr. Fung exits the courtroom.)
(Discussion held off the record between Defense counsel and the Deputy District Attorney.)

Objections

1 objections (1 sustained, 0 overruled)
Proceeding 5694 • 48 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
⚖️ Start
📂 APR 13, 1995 📄 Motion: videotape evidence (pa
APR 13, 1995 KRT DvH TD