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Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

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Thursday, July 01, 2010

Ft. Collins officer who led charge against Tim Masters indicted for felony perjury - The Denver Post

Ft. Collins officer who led charge against Tim Masters indicted for felony perjury - The Denver Post

The Fort Collins police detective who worked for years to put Tim Masters in prison for the grisly murder of a young woman saw the tables turned Wednesday when he was indicted on eight counts of felony perjury after a grand jury investigation.

The indictment, which accuses Lt. Jim Broderick of repeatedly perjuring himself in affidavits and in court, comes 2 1/2 years after Masters' murder conviction was tossed out in the face of newly examined DNA evidence and less than a month after a final settlement that saw the city of Fort Collins and Larimer County pay Masters a total of $10 million to resolve a civil rights lawsuit.

And it brought harsh words from attorney David Wymore, who led the fight to overturn Masters' conviction and who repeatedly accused Broderick of wrongdoing.

"He framed the guy," Wymore said. "And to frame a guy, you've really got to hide and be deceptive about a lot of evidence, and that's what he did."

In all, Masters spent nearly a decade behind bars for the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick, a 37-year-old manager of a clothing store.

Broderick, a Fort Collins police officer for 31 years, was put on paid leave once the indictment was unsealed Wednesday morning.

Broderick was not arrested. He will be served a summons to appear in court on an as-yet-undetermined date.

The grand jury investigation was led by special prosecutor Ken Buck, the Weld County district attorney who is running for the U.S. Senate and who originally cleared Broderick of wrongdoing in July 2008, then reopened his investigation after receiving new evidence.

Broderick referred questions to his attorney, Patrick Tooley.

"Jim Broderick never did and never would lie — in a police report, in an affidavit or on the witness stand. Period," Tooley said. "As far as I can tell, the only thing that's changed since July of 2008 when Mr. Buck issued his report is he is now running for office."

Buck vowed to handle the case as he would any other.

Masters released a statement in which he recalled the day of his conviction — March 26, 1999 — and the way one of the prosecutors, Jolene Blair, "pumped her fist in the air in victory, at the courthouse in front of my family."

"I refuse to act like that," Masters said. "I'm not going to celebrate. But I am pleased to see a glimmer of hope that the man most directly responsible for my wrongful incarceration might be held accountable for his actions to some extent."

Masters also pointed to a statement made last month by Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry in which he said officials remained "firmly convinced that Lt. Broderick and the other officers who investigated the Peggy Hettrick homicide did so in good faith."

"I am anxious to see," Masters said, "if the leadership in Fort Collins will finally publicly admit my incarceration was a mistake or if they will continue this charade that their people did nothing wrong."

Blair, now a district court judge, did not return a message left at her office Wednesday.

If he were to be convicted, Broderick could face up to six years in prison and a $500,000 fine for each perjury count.

4 comments:

BigHeets said...

Lt. Jim Broderick should do some 'time' for his corrupt, ignorant, flippant behavior for framing Tim Masters. Not to mention, he should reimburse Larimer County the $10M they had to dish out to Tim Masters. He can start paying it off with the 20% of his Colorado Dept. of Corrections state pay...60 cents a day or $13 a month. Yeah, that would be justice.

Anonymous said...

Good!

What is highly concerning are the amounts of deceit and corruption we would finally KNOW is happening across America if investigations were enforced for every judge and prosecutor with more than questionable ethics. Presently, they are getting away with abuses that contribute to massive incarcerations. It is not 'they' who serve the people as it should be, it is 'We the People' who are being sold out by a legal system we should be able to trust and feel confident about. Our jaws would drop if the facts were exposed.

The people need a wake-up call concerning our criminal 'justice' system and the betrayals to the Constitution.

Immunity from damaging behaviors from the courts require Integrity Units.

Anonymous said...

Jim Broderick should do ten years in prison at a minimum! How many other DAs and cops are doing the same thing? They are so interested in their conviction rates that they don't care about justice! Anything for a conviction -- lying, perjury, false reports, etc.

Anonymous said...

I think that the colleges that teach criminal justice need to take a look at the ethics there teaching students and change the way there teaching those who end up as DA's. prosecutors, detectives and anyone who takes there courses. If Officers of the court have to use deciet and hide evidence as they do to get convictions they need to look for other work.
I personaly was involved in a case against a friend of mine who was framed by Denver DA's officer, a judge named Egelhof, and the DOC. She was given a six year sentence for writing letters to public officials while she was already in Denver Womens prison. The letters she supposedly wrote bore no signatures and she was already in 23 hour day lock down at the time. Even if she had wrote the letters she had a 1st amendment right to complain. She is to this day under the thumb of the CDOC and will be until 2015 because of the state's mandatory parole system which is double jeopardy. Justice? Shame on you Colorado. djw