"She rejected the city's argument that any flaws were the result of "error-filled record keeping during the pandemic." "The timing of the City's modifications and fabrications is strong circumstantial evidence of bad faith, especially when considered alongside the types of modifications made to produced documents, including changing words to characterize items as biohazards, describing property as surrendered or dangerous, and adding narratives of procedures," Fisher wrote."
"In a neutral forensic analysis she ordered, Fisher wrote that the examiner found records in 90% of 144 cleanups were "either modified or fabricated after the City was put on notice" of its obligation to preserve documents. She had been waiting on that final examination to make her ruling. The ruling denied the city's proposal that the court could merely exclude the altered records as evidence, finding the evidence so tainted that a fair trial would not be possible."
A federal judge found Los Angeles violated homeless people's constitutional rights by seizing and destroying personal property during cleanups. The judge concluded that city employees altered or fabricated cleanup records after the lawsuit was filed to mischaracterize personal property as trash or hazardous. A court-ordered forensic examiner reported that records in 90% of 144 cleanups were modified or fabricated. The city’s explanation of pandemic-era record errors was rejected. The court barred reliance on the tainted records and declined to allow a trial, accepting plaintiffs' factual allegations as true. The judge ordered parties to propose remedies by March 15.
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