Police1 Staff Report
(LOS ANGELES<) - Finding that a murder defendant’s rights were violated at a preliminary hearing and also criticizing prosecutors’ failure to turn over exculpatory tape recordings, a court commissioner has dismissed murder charges in a case stemming form the LAPD Rampart Division scandals.
Commissioner Michael G. Price yesterday dismissed homicide charges against Jose Luis Oliverria for the slaying of 19-year-old Wilber Escobar, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A key witness in the case has also given conflicting stories making him unusable in a trial, the Times quotes a deputy district attorney as saying.
The prosecutor will go forward with a robbery case against Oliverria in which he is charged with stealing $1 and a six-pack of beer, the newspaper reported.