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Monday, October 05, 2009

Judge Permits Lawsuit Against DA's To Proceed

9 News
FORT COLLINS - A federal judge has ruled that Timothy Masters can proceed with portions of his civil rights lawsuit against the prosecutors who presented the murder case against him.

The judge, Lewis T. Babcock, opened his ruling with a quote from the American Bar Association Canons of Professional Ethics noting prosecutors have a duty to "see that justice is done," rather than to just seek convictions.

A jury convicted Masters in 1999 for the 1988 murder of Peggy Hettrick in Fort Collins. Masters was 15 when Hettrick was killed. He spent nearly 10 years in prison appealing his conviction, and was freed in 2008 by an outside judge who ruled that new DNA evidence pointed toward another suspect.

After he was freed, Masters sued the police and prosecutors who built the case against him. He argued they engaged in a decades-long conspiracy to arrest, convict and keep him locked up despite evidence pointing toward other suspects.

Babcock has already permitted Masters' suit against Fort Collins police to proceed.

In his ruling issued Monday morning, Babcock dismissed several claims against the prosecutors. But he permitted others to stand in what Masters' attorney called a "smashing" victory.

The two prosecutors who presented the original case against Masters, Terry Gilmore and Jolene Blair, are now Larimer District Court judges.

Both argued to Babcock that they cannot be sued for their official actions, based on a law granting prosecutors absolute immunity when acting as prosecutors. Babcock in his ruling noted that they do not enjoy such strong protection when working in a pre-prosecution "investigatory" phase.

Babcock's Monday ruling generally indicates Masters can go forward with his claims based on the acts allegedly committed by Blair and Gilmore before an arrest warrant was issued.

Masters' suit argues the two conspired with police to "shape" or "manufacture" witness testimony by giving only selected pieces of evidence to experts who helped draft the arrest warrant. "Whatever title Mr. Gilmore chooses, his alleged actions are devoid of objective reasonableness. In any event, the limited authority cited by Mr. Gilmore cannot render decades of jurisprudence recognizing the unconstitutionality of the fabrication and suppression of evidence by law enforcement officers unclear," Babcock wrote. "Mr. Masters' allegations regarding Mr. Gilmore, taken as true, "shocks the conscience" of this Court and, therefore, support a claim for violation of his substantive due process rights."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The two former prosecutors who are now state judges should be removed from the bench during this investigation. These two are not worthy of serving as judges. They violated the public trust when they went after and destroyed Tim Masters' life by concealing and destroying evidence in the murder case. They now claim they didn't know it was against the law to frame someone in order to get a conviction!

The DAs in El Paso County, and probably every county in Colorado, do the same thing. They discard the evidence they don't want and pile on charges so that almost everyone accused of crimes agrees to a plea bargain for crimes they didn't commit. When the DA threatens you with 20, 30, 40, 50 or more years to life in prison, wouldn't you take a plea bargain rather than risk your life in a trial? Who knows what a jury will do? Ask Tim Masters!!

Anonymous said...

This kind of thing goes on everyday... How many lives are going to be ruined to further the careers of some. I hope that these people get only a taste of the hell this man has been through and that maybe in all of this the people of Colorado will wake up and say "No more!" He's done enough time for his crime. "What crime?"

Anonymous said...

This should be just the beginning. Court rooms all over the U.S. suffer from the egotistical venue of people like Gilmore and Blair. This case and its attendant results needs to be brought to the attention of U.S. Congress and its committee working on judicial reform.

Anonymous said...

I SO AGREE WITH ALL THESE COMMENTS! IT IS JUST NOT RIGHT THE WAY THEY DESTROY LIVES JUST TO GET A CONVICTION. i JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THEY CAN LIVE WITH THEMSELVES KNOWING THEY HAVE RUINED SOMEONES LIFE JUST TO CLIMB THE LADDER OF POWER AND FAME. IT SAYS A SAD THING ABOUT OUR COUNTRY!

Anonymous said...

IT APPEARS THE FEDERAL JUDGE REALIZES THAT GOVERNMENT WORKERS HAVE TO ABIDE BY THE LAWS AS WE ALL DO. We at FVFI will watch these proceedings very closely.
I do agree that the two judges who were the prosecutors should step down until this is over. I dont believe they should recieve taxpayers money or ever be allowed to work as attorneys or judges should a court of law find them guilty of with holding evidence or any of the manipulation of laws to find and file false charges. These arent the only ones in Colorado that have used false charges and hidden or manipulated evidence. We at FVFI will name others in Denver soon. djw

Anonymous said...

djw. Please don't forget Colorado Springs - El Paso County. Lots of corruption in some of those courtrooms. If you haven't read about Todd Newmiller and how the prosecution and judge fully manipulated and mishandled evidence to a biased, questionable jury (therefore convicting an innocent man), please read the case summary at:

http://BearingFalseWitness.com

Thanks! I'm looking forward to your information. I want to be a part of your efforts.