By Matt Ferner

LOS ANGELES — An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that a controversial surveillance video allegedly showing three police officers eating marijuana-infused candy and mocking a disabled woman during a May dispensary raid can be used in an internal investigation by the Santa Ana Police Department. 

The unidentified officers and their union, the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, filed a temporary restraining order earlier this month to block the video from being used in an ongoing internal investigation of the officers’ conduct during the raid. The police argued their privacy was violated when surveillance cameras recorded them inside Sky High Holistic medical marijuana dispensary after they thought they had disabled all of them.

Superior Court Judge Ronald Bauer rejected that notion on Wednesday, the Orange County Register first reported, saying that the officers had “no objectively reasonable expectation” that their actions and words during the raid would not be observed.

“[The officers] should not expect privacy in their on-duty performance of an official function at a marijuana dispensary,” Bauer ruled. “They have made no claim that their work required secrecy or that it would be impeded by public view.”

Matthew Pappas, the dispensary’s attorney, said the ruling is a critical victory for holding police and public officials accountable for their actions.

“This ruling shows that the court had the courage to say ‘no’ to a very powerful police officer union and stand up for the rights of people when bad things like this happen,” Pappas told The Huffington Post.

Pappas released edited footage of the May 27 raid in June that was published by various local news outlets. The edited video, which can be seen above, shows officers busting down the door and ordering everyone to the ground at gunpoint. 

The footage, according to …read more

Source:: Weed Feed