According to court records, Tracy Police are investigating whether their own detectives last April broke rules in talking to Huckaby, who is charged with the rape and murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu. Huckaby faces the death penalty if convicted.
Huckaby’s public defender Samuel Behar said in papers filed Jan. 25 that he was told by prosecutor Tom Testa that “several” Tracy police detectives “are being investigated” to see if any “internal rules were violated in connection with Det. Nate Cogburn’s comments to Huckaby” on April 10, hours before her arrest.
Whatever Cogburn said is unclear. A judge last year ruled a gag order on the case.
Tracy Police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman would not comment.
Behar said her statements to Det. Tim Bauer on April 10 were used to authorize search warrants, but should could be thrown out if her rights were violated, the motion says.
Huckaby is charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of her eight-year-old neighbor Sandra, whose body was found last year stuffed in a suitcase floating in a dairy pond. Both Huckaby and Sandra lived in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, and Huckaby is awaiting an October trial date while being held at San Joaquin County Jail.
Last October, Behar filed a motion to suppress evidence against his client. A hearing was set for last month, but Behar was granted an extension until April 12.
Behar also wrote in his motion he needed more time because he and attorney Michael Burk have yet to see all the physical evidence in the case.
He wrote he’s waiting to receive a list of all property seized during the investigation against Huckaby, and he needed more time for other reasons not to be disclosed to the public.
An April 12 hearing is scheduled when Behar and Testa will argue over evidence.
• Contact Tracy Press reporter Cassie Tomlin at 830-4225 or ctomlin@tracypress.com.
When politics get involved the rules become convoluted and the standards gray. For instance, we would charge a drunk driver with vehicular manslaughter for killing someone in a DUI car wreck, but we charge a cop with murder for responding to a call for service? The difference is the drunk was doing something illegal to begin with. The cop was doing what you paid him to do.
If your police are not safe to do their jobs without fear of prosecution, then you are not safe. The cops will spend more time worrying about covering their behinds then they will about protecting yours.
The BART trial is supposed to end this week. Remember the Rodney King riots? What if the cops are scared to react when it hits the fan this time? Anyone taking BART to work on Friday?
Leave the detective alone, I’m sure he made a mistake during a very emotional incident and learned from it. It’s not like he is being accused of beating a confession out of her. Save my tax money and put him back to work.
Protectors have a flavor for freedom that the protected will never know.
The tracy press reported police basically ignored Huckaby drugging that kid and blamed the mother.
Isn't there still a couple of unsolved homicides that happened in this city??????
Who was voted officer of the year? And who did the voting?
Any evidence on how much the lawyer made so far?
How much publicity has he gained?
This unfortunately shows continuous pain the Cantu family must be endure, courtesy of the lawyer!
Hope the Memorial will speak volumes of injustice?
Just unbelievable!
So sorry for the Cantu family!
CN
Shakespear was right about the lawyers in his time, same applies to today?
Most Congressmen are lawyers, maybe we have bunch of sharks/snakes?
Just nuts!!
To: All who want to attend
When: Monday, March 8th
Where: Robert Kenner Park (Jacobson Scool)
Time: 7:00 pm
This is a parents worst nightmare and I hope you never have to feel the pain of not knowing where your child is, even though you trusted the person they were with..I'm the lucky one, Sandra's parents and grandparents have to try somehow to live through the loss of a child...
determine people rights or the criminals rights? Walk in the shoes of the victim and their family and I am sure you will change your mind.
Time will tell how good the Detective work was on this case....
I want to applaud Nate Cogburn and thank him for all his tireless efforts when it comes to keeping the kids in Tracy safe. It is a thankless job and people criticizing when they don't know all the facts is I'm sure frustrating for all those involved in this case. We should all have faith that they did the best they could with the info they had at the time.
I plead guilty to reacting with my heart instead of my head after I read the story, but I do feel totally confident that in the end justice will be served for both Sandra and her family.
Imagine what might have been, or not been, had Cogburn investigated Huckaby two months before Cantu disappeared?
Perhaps this guy is more trouble than he's worth?
I now have a better understanding why most people believe that in a past life most lawyers were snakes.