Master's Case Accrues More Fees

The Denver Post
FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Legal fees for Fort Collins and Larimer County officials involved in the case of a man wrongly imprisoned for a homicide have reached than $140,000 and a lawsuit is still pending.

The legal fees are to defend current and former employees who worked on the Timothy Masters case, whose conviction was overturned last January because new DNA evidence exonerated him from the 1987 slaying of Peggy Hettrick.

Masters became the first person in Colorado to be released from prison because of DNA evidence. He was 15 at the time of the Hettrick's stabbing death and police scrutinized him then, but it wasn't until 12 years later that he was prosecuted and convicted.

He spent 10 years in prison.

Masters is suing Fort Collins and Larimer County officials in a federal court civil rights lawsuit. Masters says he was maliciously prosecuted and that officials engaged in a conspiracy to convict him despite evidence pointing to other suspects.

David Lane, who is representing Masters in his lawsuit, said he hopes to shame the city and the county into settling with Masters. He is seeking unspecified damages.