State Florida v. Ronald Joseph Larrinaga

This is an appeal from an order in which the trial court dismissed eight counts of a forty-three count information charging
appellee with aggravated child abuse, child abuse, aggravated assault, lewd and lascivious assault upon a child and sexual
battery. Appellee moved to dismiss the charges against him because the state destroyed evidence. At the hearing on the motion, Detective
Donald Bauman testified that he spoke with two children in a 30-40 minute videotaped interview in April of 1987 regarding
child abuse allegations against appellee. When both children denied that appellee had abused them, the investigation was closed.
The police erased the videotaped statements one year later. The investigation was reopened when the children alleged that
appellee had abused them. The state argued at the hearing that appellee was not prejudiced by the destruction of the videotape
because the children were presently prepared to testify that they had previously denied all allegations of sexual abuse.