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<H1>Murder conviction built on cop's lies, indictment says</H1>
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<DIV class=cnnbyline>By <B>Eliott C. McLaughlin</B>, CNN</DIV>
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<DIV><B>STORY HIGHLIGHTS</B></DIV>
<UL class="cnn_bulletbin cnnstryhghlght">
<LI>Detective's attorney "adamantly" denies perjury charges, waits to see
grand jury transcripts
<LI>Tim Masters was 15 when police named him a suspect in Peggy Hettrick's
murder
<LI>Prosecutor: Evidence prompted investigation after 2008 probe ended without
charges
<LI>Masters says he hopes case finally convinces city, county to apologize for
his incarceration</LI></UL></DIV></DIV>
<P><B>(CNN) </B>-- The accuser will stand accused Friday as a Colorado detective
answers charges he lied in the case that wrongfully sent Tim Masters to
prison.</P>
<P>Masters, who served nine years of a life sentence after his 1998 arrest in
Peggy Hettrick's murder, said he hopes Fort Collins, Colorado, and Larimer
County will finally acknowledge he was railroaded.</P>
<P>The city and county have paid Masters a combined $10 million to settle a
civil rights lawsuit related to the conviction, but they painted the payouts as
business decisions rather than reparations.</P>
<P>"I am anxious to see 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," Masters said in a statement provided by his
attorneys.</P>
<P><A class=cnninlinetopic href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Tim_Masters"
target=_blank>Masters</A> was 15 when Fort Collins police began investigating
him in the 1987 murder of Hettrick, whose mutilated body was found in a field
near the home Masters shared with his father.</P>
<P>Twelve years later, he was convicted, largely on circumstantial evidence and
the testimony of an expert witness who said he fit the profile of a sexual
predator. Masters was cleared by DNA evidence and released from prison in 2008.
The crime remains unsolved.</P>
<P>It's been almost two years since the Colorado Supreme Court censured Judges
Jolene Blair and Terry Gilmore, then-prosecutors in Masters' 1999 trial, for
their handling of the case. No Fort Collins police officers have been
disciplined, and a 2008 inquiry into the actions of Lt. Jim Broderick, one of
the lead investigators, found no criminal wrongdoing.</P>
<P>A new investigation by Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, appointed as
special prosecutor in the 2008 inquiry, has now yielded an eight-count felony
perjury indictment against Broderick.</P>
<P><A
href="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/07/29/indictment.broderick.pdf"
target=_blank>Read the allegations against Broderick (PDF)</A></P>
<P>If convicted, he could face nearly 50 years in prison and millions of dollars
in fines.</P>
<P>The charges cover events spanning more than a decade and include allegations
that Broderick intentionally made false statements in Masters' arrest warrant
application, at his preliminary hearing and at his trial.</P>
<P>Chief Dennis Harrison, in the past, has staunchly backed his patrol
lieutenant's work on the case, but this week he sounded markedly more reserved
in his defense of Broderick.</P>
<P>He said he would not "blindly" support anyone without seeing what new
evidence prompted a grand jury to hand up the indictment last month.</P>
<P>The Fort Collins Police Department also has reopened its internal
investigation into Broderick, who is on paid administrative leave.</P>
<P>"With questions raised criminally about his veracity, there's no way we could
keep him working right now," Harrison said.</P>
<P>He noted, however, that multiple outside investigations have previously
unearthed no evidence that Broderick committed any crimes.</P>
<P>Buck was among those investigators. In 2008, Buck concluded that mistakes
were made in the Masters investigation but that none of those mistakes was
criminal.</P>
<P>In October, six months after announcing his candidacy for one of Colorado's
U.S. Senate seats, Buck requested that neighboring Larimer County allow him to
reopen the investigation.</P>
<P>Broderick's Denver-based attorney, Patrick Tooley, said he is waiting to see
the transcripts of testimony to the grand jury, documents that will come out
during the discovery process.</P>
<P>"We adamantly deny any wrongdoing," and Broderick looks forward to his day in
court, he said.</P>
<P><A href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/23/masters.case/index.html"
target=_blank>Read what Masters said about Broderick after his first day of
freedom</A></P>
<P>Tooley said this week that he would not speculate on Buck's motives or
timing. "I want to try this case in the courtroom," he said.</P>
<P>But shortly after the indictment, Tooley told The Denver Post, "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."</P>
<P>Harrison said he has heard "delicately put" insinuations that Buck's
motivation is political, but he, too, wants to refrain from speculation.</P>
<P>"It's a tight Senate race. Some people want to say that. I'm waiting to see
what the evidence is," Harrison said.</P>
<P>Buck declined repeated requests for an interview. An administrator in his
office said that despite granting several interviews after the indictment, Buck
would make no more statements to the media.</P>
<P>She e-mailed CNN a news release saying Buck requested to reopen the case
after "information previously not available" was uncovered in Masters' civil
proceedings.</P>
<P>Among the charges in the indictment are that Broderick intentionally lied
about an FBI profile used to support Masters' arrest, shoeprints found at the
crime scene, a fellow investigator's crime scene observations and his own degree
of participation in the case.</P>
<P><A href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Tim_Masters" target=_blank>Watch, read
CNN's Masters coverage</A></P>
<P>Attorney Maria Liu, part of the legal team that secured Masters' freedom in
post-conviction hearings, said it probably took Buck considerable effort to
"actually understand all the material and how it interplays." She speaks from
experience, as it took Masters' post-conviction team more than four years to
unravel the evidence.</P>
<P>The eight counts against Broderick merely scratch the surface of his alleged
efforts to obscure or bury evidence at Masters' trial, Liu said. She claimed
Broderick withheld "binders of material" that would have been crucial to
Masters' defense.</P>
<P>Liu, who now considers Masters a friend, would like to see Broderick
imprisoned because "he completely ruined Tim's life."</P>
<P>Not only is Masters a victim, she said, but so is Fort Collins, a college
town of about 137,000 tucked into the Rocky Mountain foothills.</P>
<P>"I want to see [Broderick] prosecuted just like anyone else who's committed a
crime," she said. "He has loaded the criminal justice system for Tim Masters and
God knows how many other people. He completely eroded Tim's opportunity for a
fair trial."</P>
<P>Broderick spoke with CNN in late 2007, before the discovery of the DNA
evidence that cleared Masters in Hettrick's murder. Broderick declined to
address allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct but said he stood by
his investigation.</P>
<P><A href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/18/masters.cops/index.html"
target=_blank>Read how the case divided a police force</A></P>
<P>He welcomed any new evidence in the case, he said, because "the last thing in
the world I want is someone convicted of a crime they didn't do."</P>
<P>Friday's hearing marks Broderick's first court appearance as a defendant in
this long-running legal drama.</P>
<P>At an initial appearance, a judge usually reads the accused his rights and
the charges against him. Broderick also is expected to enter a plea.</P>
<P>Bail is often decided at first appearances, but Buck has told Colorado media
that Broderick is not a flight risk and will be released on his own
recognizance.</P>
<P>Each felony <A href="http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Perjury"
target=_blank>perjury</A> count carries a sentence of up to six years in prison
and a $500,000 fine.</P>
<P class=cnninline>Said Masters in his statement, "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."</P></FONT></DIV><FONT
size=2>
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