This is pretty big and could lead to a state wide shutdown of red light traffic cameras (temporarily at least).

Red light camera companies just took a big hit in court. The 2nd District Court of Appeals down in Los Angeles just published a case (meaning it can be cited as precedent) where they overturned a red light camera conviction. The court held that the pictures, video and maintenance records (the only evidence against you) from the camera company are inadmissible hearsay unless the person who created them is in court to "authenticate" them. This is a biiiiig problem since the camera companies are located in Arizona and that is where the pictures and video are sent and processed by their technicians.

Courts in California had been getting around the hearsay argument by admitting the evidence under the "business" or "official records" exemption (California evidence code 1271 + 1280). They had also been admitting the pictures and video as "authentic" based on California evidence codes 1552 + 1553.

The DCA held that 1271 + 1280 could not be used since the person who was attempting to claim them as "business records" (a local police officer testifying as an expert witness) was not an employee of the camera company and thus not qualified to testify as to what was or wasn't a business record for the camera company (which is a private, for profit foreign company). They shot them down on 1552 + 1553 as well, stating the lower court had misinterpreted the meaning of those evidence codes.

I think this will work it's way to the State Supreme court since there is so much money at stake for the camera companies and all the cities who generate revenue from them. If it does get to that level I think this newest decision will hold.

The DCA did not post a decision regarding the Confrontation Clause issues with this case, they seemed content that they had resolved the case before reaching that argument (although they did address Confrontation in the footnotes). If it does make it to the State Supreme Court I think it will be addressed. There are two big Confrontation Clause cases from the US Supreme Court that relate directly to this matter and they've been argued all throughout this case (PDF links: Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts and Bullcoming v. New Mexico)

If you are a California resident and you get one of these tickets you need to fight it and cite this case as precedent. With this case officially published, they can not use the photo, video and maintenance records as evidence if you raise the objection and base it on this case. The only way they overcome it is if the tech who created the documents is in court to "authenticate" them. If you don't live in California you won't be able to cite this case but you still need to read the decision and apply the arguments to your own case.

People v. Borzakian