DETROIT (AP) — A man convicted of sawing and removing metal fence posts at a Detroit baseball field has lost his appeal, even though police lost track of the evidence before trial.
Marvin Armstead was accused of sawing 10 posts at Jayne Field so he could use them for his own fencing business. Armstead insisted that he had purchased posts that were similar to ones that were stolen.
He argued that his lawyer should have tried to have the case dismissed because the fence posts were lost while in police custody. But the appeals court says the lost evidence was only potentially useful to his defense.
The court says police officers might have been negligent but they didn’t act in bad faith, a key legal standard.
