Destruction of Video Tape may Permit DWI Defendant to Vacate Guilty Plea. State v. Mustaro 411 NJ Super 91 (App. Div. 2009)

Destruction of Video Tape may Permit DWI Defendant to Vacate Guilty Plea. State v. Mustaro
 411 NJ Super 91 (App. Div. 2009)
The court considered defendant's appeal from the denial of a post-sentence motion to vacate his plea of guilty to driving while intoxicated. The motion was predicated on a claim that the state withheld exculpatory evidence, but by the time the motion was filed the evidence — a videotape recorded by the camera in the arresting officer's patrol car — had been destroyed through reuse in accordance with the police department's procedures. Applying State v. Parsons, 341 N.J. Super. 448 (App. Div. 2001), and State v. Marshall, 123 N.J. 1, 107-09 (1991), the court concluded that defendant failed to establish that he would not have admitted to driving if he had access to the videotape prior to the plea, and the court further concluded that the denial of his motion was fully consistent with a proper application of the principles set forth in State v. Slater, 198 N.J. 145 (2009).