By Lily Rusk
WOODLAND, CA – A Yolo County deputy, testifying here at a preliminary hearing in Yolo County Superior Court this week, admitted his “laziness” contributed to discrepancies in his incident report and the detainment of an accused for nine hours in the eventual arrest of a felon in possession of a firearm.
The deputy testified, on cross-examination, that as far as he could recall this was the only time he had ever detained anyone for nine hours on a felon-in-possession case.
In the preliminary hearing in front of Judge Daniel Wolk, the co-accused are both 
charged with felony possession of a firearm. That is the sole charge for one of the co-defendants while the other is charged with felony possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition by a prohibited person, receiving stolen property, unlawful possession of paraphernalia, and an enhancement of aggravated circumstances.
Two law enforcement officers conducted a safety sweep of the premises, the third time entering the accused’s trailer where a firearm was found, but officers were unable to collect until they obtained consent from the accused or a warrant. After four hours of being detained, the accused gave the officers consent, according to testimony.
While testifying, the deputy said he did not remember much of the search and had to reference his report many times. When questioned by Deputy Public Defender Richard Van Zandt and Conflict Attorney Rob Gorman about discrepancies in his report the deputy admitted the reason was because of “laziness.”
These discrepancies included the report not being in order and multiple places in the report when the officer wrote that he looked in the trailer when he actually entered the trailer.
The defense questioned if, in preparation for testifying, he watched back footage of the incident and the deputy said the only time he watched the footage was some clips when writing his report. The only available footage was from a law enforcement vehicle because none of the four officers on the premises wore body cameras.
After being detained for nine hours the co-defendants were taken into custody and the firearm in their trailer was taken.
