Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

I would argue that one of the officers got himself 41 pills.

Police reports are generally inadmissible, because they contain numerous hearsay statements from people who were under no oath or obligation to tell the truth. Although you may have been handed a police report at the time of arraignment as part of the discovery package handed over by the prosecutor, the police report is not filed with the court and the judge is unaware of it.

Your attorney should use the police report to impeach the testimony of the officers, in the event you go to trial. The testimony of the officers is what will be admissible against you.

No, is the simple answer. It can be used to impeach the officers' testimony, but possibly your understanding of the report is wrong. But there is no legal mechanism for dismissing a case due to discrepancy of the number of pills.

Mr. Roach is right. The report will not be admissible as evidence against you. If the officers disagree at trial over how many pills there were, your lawyer can argue that their disagreement undermines their credibility. And if they agree at trial, she will be able to use the reports to show that at least one of them is contradicting his prior statements. The prosecutor will see this problem ahead of time (and your lawyer will point it out anyway), and may offer you a better deal as a result. So the discrepancy will help you in multiple ways, even though it won't get the case dismissed.

The simple answer is that ANY discrepency between law enforcement officers is good for the defendant. But, rarely, is 1 discrepency alone, enough to destroy a whole case. But it can used for plea bargaining and looks good for you, should you need to go to trial....David Wallin