LOS ANGELES - The reality TV show "Bait Car" is supposed to catch car thieves in the act.
Undercover cops park a rigged car on the side of the road, conspicuously leaving the keys inside, while a television crew waits nearby for an unsuspecting passerby to take the bait and steal the car.
But in one recent sting filmed in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the lead detective on the case ended up getting busted instead.
Footage shot for the TruTV program showed 28-year-old Keenan Alex come across a parked, shiny, red Cadillac Escalade with the keys in the ignition and the engine running. After he gets inside and drives off, deputies pull him over and cuff him.
In court, Detective Anthony Shapiro said under oath that he read Alex his Miranda rights from a card in his notebook before the suspect made incriminating statements, a transcript shows.
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But unedited video for the program shows that the detective never read the suspect his constitutional rights, including the right to remain silent and have an attorney present during questioning.
"You watch TV. You know your rights and all that?" Shapiro asked instead, according to the video reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
Combining law enforcement and reality TV has a long and sometimes controversial history, dating to the long-running show "Cops." While such programs often record the questionable behavior of suspects, the "Bait Car" case shows the unblinking eye of the camera can also catch potential police wrongdoing.
After Shapiro's conduct was discovered, authorities dropped the case against Alex and launched a criminal perjury investigation of the detective, citing the conflict between his testimony and the video.
Deputy District Attorney Christopher Frisco told a judge in February that the contradiction "poses a very severe problem" for the detective, according to court documents.
Explaining why the D.A.'s office agreed to dismiss the case, Frisco said the footage showed that Shapiro violated Alex's Miranda rights, which prevented the prosecution from using the defendant's incriminating statements.
Frisco said prosecutors needed the statements to counter defense arguments that Alex's mental illness played a role in the decision to take the vehicle.
