In Commonwealth v. Donoughe, the defendant was charged with DUI and accepted into the ARD program. Pursuant to a written policy, ninety days after the defendant was accepted into ARD, the Pennsylvania State Police destroyed the mobile recording video of the arrest. But the defendant got kicked out of ARD and proceeded to trial. He raised a Brady claim based on the destruction of the video. The Pennsylvania Superior Court did not agree. The Court held that the defendant could not show that the video had exculpatory or impeachment value, a necessary element under Brady. And if he wished to assert that the video was “potentially useful”, such a claim would raise a due process issue requiring a showing of bad faith on behalf of law enforcement. And that element was plainly lacking.
