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Wrongly Imprisoned Man's $4.1M Settlement Approved:Timothy Masters; DNA Points To Another Suspect
KMGH Channel 7 ^ | 2/16/2010 | Staff Reports

Posted on 02/16/2010 9:34:05 AM PST by NorCoGOP

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Larimer County officials have voted to approve a proposed $4.1 million settlement to a lawsuit filed by a man who was wrongly imprisoned for nearly 10 years for a woman's slaying that remains unsolved.

Timothy Masters was convicted in 1999 in the murder of Peggy Hettrick in Fort Collins, but a judge overturned the conviction in 2008 after DNA evidence pointed toward another suspect.

Masters' lawsuit claimed detectives and prosecutors maliciously targeted him and destroyed or withheld evidence that could have cleared him.

Larimer County's board of commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the settlement. Three million dollars will come from insurance and $1.1 million will come form the county risk management fund.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abuseofpower; donutwatch; nifongism; thesystem
Developing Story....
1 posted on 02/16/2010 9:34:07 AM PST by NorCoGOP
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To: NorCoGOP

And where was Amy Bishop at the time!?


2 posted on 02/16/2010 9:39:17 AM PST by 6SJ7 (atlasShruggedInd = TRUE)
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To: NorCoGOP

Sounds like the Houston Crime Lab was involved.


3 posted on 02/16/2010 9:39:32 AM PST by TexasCajun
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To: 6SJ7

And who is Amy Bishop, and why should it matter?


4 posted on 02/16/2010 9:42:10 AM PST by theDentist (fybo; qwerty ergo typo : i type, therefore i misspelll)
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To: NorCoGOP

Seems to me that $4.1 million is getting off cheap for destroying the man’s life for 10 years....and frankly longer since the overturned conviction will still follow him looking for work etc. and trying to get back on his feet. Luckily the $4.1 million will help with that issue if he spends it wisely, say $70k a year or something and saves the rest.


5 posted on 02/16/2010 9:43:05 AM PST by rwfromkansas ("Carve your name on hearts, not marble." - C.H. Spurgeon)
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To: NorCoGOP

Seems to me that $4.1 million is getting off cheap for destroying the man’s life for 10 years....and frankly longer since the overturned conviction will still follow him looking for work etc. and trying to get back on his feet. Luckily the $4.1 million will help with that issue if he spends it wisely, say $70k a year or something and saves the rest.


6 posted on 02/16/2010 9:43:17 AM PST by rwfromkansas ("Carve your name on hearts, not marble." - C.H. Spurgeon)
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To: TexasCajun

Or the Oklahoma City crime lab. They had to pay off a whole bunch of ex-prisoners once it was discovered that the ME fudged the evidence so the DA at the time could have a 95% conviction rate. He’s been gone a few years, thankfully.


7 posted on 02/16/2010 9:44:33 AM PST by MizSterious (Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm? John Page, 1744-1808)
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To: MizSterious

I support the death penalty but I’d never sentence someone to death based on what the Houston Crime Lab presented as evidence.


8 posted on 02/16/2010 9:47:18 AM PST by TexasCajun
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To: NorCoGOP
Way too many of these stories. The so-called 'adversarial' system of justice has outlived its usefulness and needs to go. We need to adopt something more like the French system, while yet retaining the idea of juries. NOBODY should ever have any sort of money or career incentive to simply put people in prison regardless of whatever facts might exist. The job of DA for sure has to go, it involves near infinite power and near zero accountability.

Dr. Phil was going over two such cases the other day in which some poor guy sat around in prison for more than ten years after convictions based on nothing but faulty eye-witness testimony and both were further evidence that too many white people in this country (I'm white by the way) can't tell two blacks apart if one is male and the other female, or one alive and the other dead. That comes from not having any dealings with the other group and it's the one argument against home schooling or anything like that which I know of which is halfway valid. I mean, if you're going to live in a country in which 15% of the people are black, you have to have some contact with them and at least be able to tell two of them apart.

9 posted on 02/16/2010 9:54:37 AM PST by wendy1946
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To: NorCoGOP

Given the corruption in America’s Congress, state legislatures and local governments; might I be paranoid in saying that every person in America lives under the serious threat of intimidation, personal attack, arrest, and/or prosecution?

A prime example is evident in how Democrats and liberals are treating Sarah Palin.


10 posted on 02/16/2010 9:58:41 AM PST by OldNavyVet
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To: NorCoGOP

Masters’ lawsuit claimed detectives and prosecutors maliciously targeted him and destroyed or withheld evidence that could have cleared him.

THEY SHOULD BE IN JAIL FOR LIFE FOR THIS. If it is true, which I have no reason to believe otherwise.


11 posted on 02/16/2010 9:59:57 AM PST by eyeamok
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To: wendy1946

Funniest post I have ever read on FR. However, I think that’s not what you were trying to achieve...


12 posted on 02/16/2010 10:09:19 AM PST by ExpatGator (I hate Illinois Nazis!)
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To: NorCoGOP
Three million dollars will come from insurance and $1.1 million will come form the county risk management fund.

Nothing from the prosecutor's pension?

13 posted on 02/16/2010 10:11:16 AM PST by a fool in paradise (DON'T SAY "Happy Valentines' Day". It's Happy Holidays! This is the Holiday Season (Prez Day Feb15))
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To: wendy1946
it's the one argument against home schooling or anything like that which I know of which is halfway valid.

Are you making the fantastic assertion that home schooled jurists at at fault and not the police and prosecutors?

14 posted on 02/16/2010 10:25:55 AM PST by LoneRangerMassachusetts
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To: ExpatGator

You need to work on the sense of humor. The two things I mentioned are the two major common denominators in too many of these stories.


15 posted on 02/16/2010 10:26:14 AM PST by wendy1946
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts

I’m generally in favor of home schooling. There are problems with anything no matter how good, and it’s always good to know what they are.


16 posted on 02/16/2010 10:28:01 AM PST by wendy1946
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts

Home schooled jurists were not the problmem in the cases I mentioned. The problem is one group of people with so little exposure to the other that they can’t tell two of them apart, and innocent people sitting around in prisons on account of it.


17 posted on 02/16/2010 10:29:46 AM PST by wendy1946
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To: wendy1946
it's the one argument against home schooling or anything like that which I know of which is halfway valid. I mean, if you're going to live in a country in which 15% of the people are black, you have to have some contact with them and at least be able to tell two of them apart.

If you were homeschooled you wouldn't make such an ignorant racist remark. Do you think only white people home school?

18 posted on 02/16/2010 12:09:04 PM PST by Valpal1 ("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.")
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To: wendy1946

Thanks for the laugh.


19 posted on 02/16/2010 12:10:00 PM PST by ExpatGator (I hate Illinois Nazis!)
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To: wendy1946
Home schooled jurists were not the problmem in the cases I mentioned. The problem is one group of people with so little exposure to the other that they can’t tell two of them apart, and innocent people sitting around in prisons on account of it.

Well seeing as Fort Collins is only 3% black maybe we can start forced busing from Detroit to fix that recognition deficit you're so worried about. Maybe add a racial facial recognition component to the K-12 component.

BTW, were these benighted witnesses homeschooled? Is that why you conclude homeschoolers are the problem here?

20 posted on 02/16/2010 12:17:51 PM PST by Valpal1 ("All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.")
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