SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento County District Attorney's office is dismissing 79 cases after an extensive review of the work of a former Sacramento police officer who allegedly falsified his reports.
Six of those dismissals already have been processed, District Attorney Jan Scully said at a news conference Friday morning. The rest were to be thrown out at a Superior Court hearing Friday afternoon.
In the 79 cases, most of which involved charges of driving under the influence, prosecutors and police officials said they identified marked discrepancies between the written reports of former Sacramento police Officer Brandon Mullock and video captured by his patrol cruiser's in-car camera system.
Those discrepancies damaged Mullock's credibility, so the cases therefore could not be prosecuted practically or ethically, Scully said.
Most of the 79 cases already have gone through the system, and in many, the defendants pled guilty. Dismissing those cases - and wiping them clean from the defendants' records - is an "extraordinary step," Scully said.
"But we are bound by our ethical obligation," she said. "That's what justice calls for."
Scully's office began reviewing cases in which Mullock was the primary or arresting officer - or those in which he had been subpoenaed or called to the stand - in June after an attorney in a DUI case said he noticed discrepancies.
Nearly a dozen people from the DA's office and the Police Department spent "hundreds" of hours reviewing more than 200 cases, Scully said.
The review involved cases spanning Mullock's short career with the Police Department, from February 2007 to January 2010.
Mullock was placed on administrative leave in January after he was accused of brandishing a gun in an off-duty, unrelated incident, and ultimately resigned from the agency late last month.
Scully said police officials are working on their own investigation into Mullock's conduct and will submit a report to the DA's office.
Prosecutors then will decide whether to file criminal charges against Mullock. He could face misdemeanor charges of filing false police reports and felony charges of perjury, Scully said.
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