United States v. Olabimpe Adetayo, 682 F. App'x 216

Defendant Olabimpe K. Adetayo was convicted by a magistrate judge of impeding or interfering with an officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111(a)(1); several unrelated state motor-vehicle offenses were also convicted but not appealed.
Adetayo moved to dismiss the criminal complaint, claiming the Government destroyed video evidence of the incident and thus violated her due process rights.
The magistrate judge denied the motion to dismiss and declined to give an adverse inference that the missing video would have favored Adetayo.
The district court affirmed the magistrate judge’s conviction and denial of relief; Adetayo appealed to the Fourth Circuit.
The Fourth Circuit reviewed factual findings for clear error and legal conclusions de novo, and considered Brady, Youngblood, and related precedent governing destroyed or undisclosed evidence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether dismissal was required because the Government destroyed video evidence	Adetayo: destruction violated due process and required dismissal	Government: failure to preserve the video does not violate due process absent bad faith	Denied — no reversible error; negligent or unexplained loss not shown to be in bad faith
Whether an adverse inference instruction should be applied because the video was unpreserved	Adetayo: court should infer the video would have been favorable	Government: no basis for adverse inference without bad faith or showing the evidence’s favorable nature	Denied — no reversible error; adverse inference not warranted without bad faith or proof of favorable content

Abramski v. United States, 706 F.3d 307 (4th Cir. 2013) (standard of review for motion-to-dismiss appeals)
Woolfolk v. United States, 399 F.3d 590 (4th Cir. 2005) (standard of review for factual findings and legal conclusions)
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) (prosecution must disclose evidence favorable to accused when material to guilt or punishment)
Illinois v. Fisher, 540 U.S. 544 (2004) (failure to preserve potentially useful evidence violates due process only upon a showing of bad faith)
Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51 (1988) (negligent loss of evidence does not constitute due-process violation absent bad faith)
Jean v. Collins, 221 F.3d 656 (4th Cir. 2000) (bad-faith standard requires intentional withholding to deprive the defendant of the evidence)
Elmore v. Ozmint, 661 F.3d 783 (4th Cir. 2011) (negligent erasure of video does not prove bad faith)