Instead, he ate the paper containing the tip while sitting in court. “We promise the people who give us information to solve murders, serious violent crimes in this community, that they can call with an assurance that they will remain anonymous and that nothing about them or their information would ever be compromised," he said.
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"The case today started creeping into that... it’s not going to happen on my watch and I understood the consequences." Masten was ordered to share the tip, without the source, with the judge after an attorney for a woman charged with cocaine possession asked to see the information it contained. The attorney said his request had nothing to do with identifying the person behind the tip.
But Masten declined to show the tip to the judge so she could consider whether releasing it would compromise the tipster's identity. He said he couldn't trust the process and that he worried agreeing in this case would be a slippery slope. The judge found him in contempt of court for his actions. Masten is set to appear in court again next week, when he could be sentenced to up to two weeks in jail. “I’ll bring a toothbrush and some pyjamas in case I do," he said.
With additional news video.
2 comments:
Good for him. If there is any doubt at all about the safety of giving tips to Crime Stoppers, the whole program will fail.
sooz, I take it you're okay with a person's constitutional rights being violated?
You have no problem with anonymous tips with no information as to their validity, whether the person has something to do with the crime- perhaps trying to put the spotlight on someone else, has an ulterior reason to put in an alleged tip, is a cop who is using the tip as a go around of due process, etc, etc?
The court is not asking to identify the tipster. They are merely responding to the defendents request not to be faced with an accuser he can't cross-examine
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