"The videotape speaks for itself," Deputy Dist. Atty. Liza Tom said. "There do appear to be sufficient inconsistencies to render a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt unlikely in this case."
Tom said prosecutors had yet to talk to the officers about their testimony and the video evidence.
Police Cmdr. Richard Webb, who oversees the department's internal affairs group, said his investigators were notified about the court hearing Monday afternoon.
"We're trying to figure out the facts as fast as we possibly can," Webb said. "Bottom line: We take this kind of stuff very, very seriously."
The drug charges against Alarcon rested almost entirely on the word of the two officers, Richard Amio and Evan Samuel.
Both men joined the LAPD in 2002. Amio works as a patrol officer in the Hollywood Division. Samuel left the department six months ago and works for the Chino Police Department. Neither appeared in court Monday, nor could they be reached for comment.
On Friday, the officers appeared confident and composed as they testified one at a time. The two men said they were driving down Ardmore Avenue just south of Santa Monica Boulevard on July 6 when they recognized Alarcon, a suspected gang member, standing on the sidewalk outside his apartment complex.
As they shined their car's spotlight at him, they said, Alarcon fled down one of the building's walkways. The officers said they jumped out of their car and chased him into the building's carport. There, they testified, they saw Alarcon throw a black box toward a dumpster.
"As it hit the dumpster, I observed that once it landed on the floor it cracked open," Amio told jurors.
During his testimony, Amio was asked whether it took about 20 minutes to find the drugs.
"No," he replied, with a laugh.
Samuel gave a similar account.
"He threw it to his right and it hit off a dumpster in the same general area," Samuel testified.
The officers said that Samuel picked up the box. Inside, he found 12 bindles of powder cocaine and two rocks of crack cocaine with a street value of about $260.
Alarcon was arrested on suspicion of drug possession with the intent to sell.
Under cross-examination, Samuel and Amio denied hearing or saying several comments that the defense contended were made by officers on the video, including a threat against Alarcon to put him on his knees if he talked again.
