Late last March, a Madison County judge dismissed a misdemeanor marijuana charge during the trial because prosecutors had failed to turn over dashboard camera recordings to the defendant's attorney. Patrick Luchtefeld was the passenger in a car that had been stopped because it lacked a light over its license plate.

Arresting officer Charles Allen performed a field sobriety and breathalyzer test on the driver. The driver passed both. Allen testified that he found a small amount of marijuana in a baggie near the passenger side seat. Luchtefeld was arrested and charged with misdemeanor possession of cannabis.

At trial, the Madison County State's Attorney's Office claimed that it was not in possession of any dashboard camera recordings. Arresting officer Charles Allen testified that the dashboard camera videos did not exist.

At that point, Luchtefeld informed his attorney, Thomas Maag, that they did exist - and he was in possession of them. Shortly after his arrest, Luchtefeld requested the dashboard camera videos from the Highland Police Department via a Freedom of Information Act request. He received four CDs containing the recordings.

Learn the rest of the story from Matthew Hector's article in the June Illinois Bar Journal.