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Sean Emery. Cops and Breaking News Reporter. 

// MORE INFORMATION: Associate Mug Shot taken August 26, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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A detective who admitted to mishandling now-missing video evidence during the investigation of an Anaheim killing was negligent but there is no evidence he acted in bad faith, a judge concluded this week.

The judge denied the defense’s request to dismiss the murder case.

Anaheim Officer Joseph Atkinson previously testified to either neglecting to make a copy of surveillance evidence or making a copy and forgetting to book it into evidence and losing it. The footage was a key factor in obtaining a search warrant against Pedro Hernandez, who is charged with the 2015 killing of Michael Francis Ryan.

It is unclear what happened to the original footage.

Hernandez’s attorney had asked the court to dismiss the charge against Hernandez, alleging that evidence that could have been helpful to the defense had been destroyed.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger, in a written ruling issued this week, denied the request. Because the video evidence was only “potentially useful” to the defense, the judge wrote, the defense had to prove that the government had acted in bad faith.

“Such an action is certainly careless and there is no question the officer’s actions were negligent in the handling of this evidence,” the judge wrote.

Still, she said, that doesn’t support that any officer “acted in bad faith.”

Atkinson — a 26-year law enforcement veteran now working as a traffic sergeant — generally recalled the surveillance footage showing Hernandez appearing to be fleeing the scene of Ryan’s stabbing. The officer denied intentionally losing or destroying the evidence, acknowledging in earlier testimony that his handling of the video footage was a “significant failure.”

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders has alleged that the evidence was “willfully destroyed” after investigators realized their description in court filings of what the video depicted didn’t match the actual footage.

Other video footage — which was not lost — shows Hernandez walking behind a Walgreens before entering the store, prosecutors say. The defense attorney has alleged that Atkinson later realized the person he saw in the footage running from the scene of the killing was not the same person who entered the Walgreens.

Prosecutors previously argued that there was no evidence to suggest the loss of the video was the result of anything but carelessness. They allege that other evidence — including eyewitness reports and other video footage — points to Hernandez.

Hernandez — who was a 19-year-old Stanton resident at the time of his arrest — is accused of killing Ryan, a 47-year-old homeless man, during a mid-day attack on Dec. 15, 2015, in the 1200 block of South Magnolia Street. Along with the murder charge, he also faces sentencing enhancements alleging he was involved in a criminal street-gang activity.

A date for Hernandez’s jury trial had not been scheduled yet.