Court orders preservation of evidence in Oildale crash investigation
BY JILL COWAN Californian staff writer jcowan@bakersfield.com
Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Linda Etienne agreed Wednesday morning to issue a court order to preserve evidence related to the sheriff's car crash that killed 24-year-old Oildale man Daniel Hiler in December.
Attorney David Cohn on Jan.5 filed a "petition to preserve evidence" in Kern County Superior Court. The petition asked for a court order requiring the California Highway Patrol to keep items like surveillance tape from a nearby gas station and the vehicle's "black box" unaltered in anticipation of a lawsuit against the county on behalf of Hiler's family.
At the Wednesday hearing, Etienne said she didn't see any problem with issuing the court order, since there didn't appear to be "opposition of any kind" from the CHP, which was not represented at the hearing.
Furthermore, she said, Cohn's office was not asking for access to the evidence before the CHP completes its investigation.
The order will require that the CHP preserve relevant evidence until any civil action on the case is resolved.
While Kern County Chief Deputy Counsel Mark Nations has said he saw the petition as unnecessary, after the hearing Wednesday he said he was "not opposed" to the order.
"You just have to let law enforcement do its job," he said, adding, "If they want to sue us, they'll sue us."
Matt Clark, an attorney representing Cohn's office at the hearing, described the petition as "frankly, a formality."
"We have no reason to believe evidence will disappear," he said. "But it's just a way to make sure (it) doesn't happen."
Cohn filed a claim against the county on behalf of Hiler's fiancee, Whittney Peaker, 22, and the couple's two young sons. The claim is a necessary first step in filing a claim against a public entity.
Attorney Steve Nichols has also filed a wrongful death claim against the county on behalf of the family of Chrystal Jolley, 30, who was also killed in the Dec. 16 crash.
However, he did not file a similar petition in court, saying law enforcement already has a responsibility to protect evidence, and that such a petition would be "overkill."
His office obtained a copy of the gas station surveillance video earlier this month and released it to media.
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