Los Angeles police were fired after choosing to play Pokémon Go over arresting a armed robbery going very close to them.
The two police officers had already been convicted but had appealed the decision. Friday, January 7, the decision of the Los Angeles Police Department to fire officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell was finally upheld by the California Court of Appeals.
The two police officers admitted to having ignored the call, of April 15, 2017, concerning a armed robbery but have continuously denied being playing Pokemon Go on their smartphones. Their patrol supervisor, Sergeant Jose Gomez, allegedly attempted to contact the two officers several times but were unsuccessful, according to The Independent.
Defense: too much noise!
Their defense for not answering the call was that they were in a noisy area and the radio sound was inaudible. No chance, video of the patrol car revealed officers decided not to answer Gomez’s call.
According to the judicial file, posted online by the Court : “For approximately the next 20 minutes, the DICVS (On-Board Digital Video System) captured the defendants discussing Pokemon as they traveled to different locations where the virtual creatures apparently appeared on their cellphones.“
the Daily Telegraph having read the whole document, we would have heard them talk about pokémons: “Officer Mitchell alerted Lozano that ‘Snorlax’ has just appeared.“
The Court of Appeal maintains the sanction
If Lozano and Mitchell initially denied the facts, they eventually confessed to playing it. However, they attempted to prevent the recording from being used as evidence, arguing that the conversation was private and had “improperly” acquired.
To which the court clearly replied: “It would be absurd to require commanders and internal affairs investigators to ignore evidence of ‘blatant criminal conduct’ simply because it has been inadvertently captured.“
The Court of Appeal therefore maintained the initial penalty of dismissal.