Prosecutors claim former LA deputies cut of power, security camera to plant evidence to support arrest in pot store

The Los Angeles Times reported that the California state has filed a complaint against two former County sheriff's deputies who allegedly planted evidence deliberately to justice the arrests they have made at a medical marijuana dispensary. Julio Cesar Martinez and Anthony Manuel Paez has been indicted for conspiring to obstruct justice and altering evidence, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Aside from the two felony counts each former law enforcement officer has been charged with, Martinez is also facing two additional felony counts of perjury and filing a false report. The two are expected to be arraigned on June 17.

The complaint filed by prosecutors last week said Martinez insisted that a man in the medical marijuana dispensary was taking part in a drug deal and had reached for a gun inside his shorts pocket. The defendant had also stated that the men threw his gun near a trash bin inside the dispensary. Prosecutors also said in the complaint that Martinez had kicked a wall outlet, subsequently shutting down power to the room without a search warrant. Paez purportedly opened a drawer, retrieved a gun and placed it on a chair. Paez also had placed a gun next to some ecstasy pills on top of an office desk. At some point, prosecutors said Paez allegedly disabled the security camera system under the desk.

In the supposed drug bust inside the dispensary, the LA Times said Martinez and Paez arrested one man for possession of an unregistered gun and another for possession of a controlled substance while armed with a gun. LA District Attorney's office spokeswoman Jane Robison said that charges filed against the two men arrested by the former deputies were later dropped.

Prosecutors argued on Wednesday that the sheriff's Internal Criminal Investigation Bureau began to probe on the incident a year after and was able to discover a video which directly discredited the report filed by the two former deputies. The two were arrested on Friday but had been released that day on a $50,000 bail, the LA Times said.

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Los Angeles County district attorney's office, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, LA marijuana dispensary arrest scandal

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