Sgt. Larry Mason testimony on leaks - Arndt case

If you can't guess who turned in Sgt. Larry Mason to be CRIMINALLY PROSECUTED for leaks (and he was found NOT GUILTY after a six month, grueling, internal investigation), you don't know anything about this case:

www.cybersleuths.com

candy
Member
Member # 311

Member Rated:
posted 05-27-2003 04:37 AM
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*When the ST depo was forced open by the court, I mentioned the testimony of Sargeant Larry Mason in the Arndt trial on this subject. I was very surprised that no one seemed to have heard about what he said. This was not in the paper; I heard about his testimony by people who attended the trial.

Sargeant Larry Mason was falsely accused of leaks and subject to an internal affairs Investigation by the Boulder Police Department, after which he was cleared. He was taken off the JonBenet Ramsey case after he was falsely accused of leaking, and never allowed back on the case. This is his sworn testimony from the Linda Arndt trial. It is very relevant what he has to say, as you will see:

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

8

1 THE CLERK: Please state your full name for the
2 record, spelling your last name.
3 THE WITNESS: Larry Mason, M-A-S-O-N.
4 MR. JONES: May I proceed, Your Honor?
5 THE COURT: You may.
6 MR. HALABY: Your Honor, for the record, based on
7 the plaintiff’s prior proffer of the proposed testimony of
8 this witness, we’d reiterate our -- our objections
9 previously voiced.
10 THE COURT: Well, let’s get started and at the
11 appropriate time lodge an objection, and I’ll see you at
12 side-bar at that time.
13 MR. HALABY: Thank you.
14 DIRECT EXAMINATION
15 BY MR. JONES:
16 Q Sergeant Mason, would you please tell the jury your
17 current position in the Boulder Police Department.
18 A I’m a sergeant with the Boulder Police Department,
19 currently assigned to patrol division, one of the
20 supervisors on Watch I or day watch.
21 Q And Watch I is -- that’s day watch?
22 A Correct.
23 Q Sergeant Mason, how long have you been in law
24 enforcement?
25 A I’ve been a police officer for 28 years now.

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

9

1 Q And how long have you been with the City of Boulder?
2 A I’ve been with the City of Boulder 21 years, and I was
3 with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department for six years.
4 Q Are you approaching retirement stage of your career
5 with the City of Boulder?
6 A Yes, I am.
7 Q About how -- how long off is that?
8 A Three years, three to four years.
9 Q What was your position with the City of Boulder in
10 December of 1996?
11 A I was a detective sergeant responsible for crimes
12 against property and crimes against persons.
13 Q What was your position in December of 1996 with respect
14 to plaintiff, Linda Arndt?
15 A I was her immediate supervisor.
16 Q Now, you referred to your role in 1996. I think it
17 might be helpful if we talked about the structure of the
18 Boulder Police Department. Who was the chief in December of
19 1996?
20 A The chief at that time was Tom Koby.
21 Q And between you and Chief Koby and the hierarchy, could
22 you tell us who -- who fills that gap -- who filled that gap
23 in December of 1996?
24 A There was a commander for each of the watches and a
25 commander for the detective division.

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

10

1 Q And who---
2 A And then there was sergeants.
3 Q And who would have been immediately above you?
4 A My immediate supervisor was Commander John Eller.
5 Q And did he report directly to Chief Koby?
6 A Yes, he did.
7 Q What was current-Chief Beckner’s position in December
8 of 1996?
9 A I believe Chief Beckner’s position at that time was a
10 commander on swing shift -- or second watch which is the
11 afternoon watch.
12 Q And what was current-Commander Wickman’s position at
13 that point? Do you recall?
14 A He was a sergeant and he had just come back into the
15 bureau after being promoted and doing a year on patrol.
16 Q And “the bureau” refers to the detective bureau?
17 A Detective bureau, yes.
18 Q And to identify a few other of the players here,
19 Detectives Trujillo, Harmer and Thomas, were they all in the
20 bureau at that time?
21 A Yes, they were.
22 Q And eventually became part of the Ramsey investigative
23 team?
24 A Yes, they were.
25 Q Okay. What was Sergeant Whitson’s position at that

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

11

1 point?
2 A Sergeant Whitson was a narcotics -- he was in charge of
3 the narcotics division within the detective division.
4 Q And how about -- is -- was it Sergeant Reichenbach?
5 Was he a sergeant at the time or a detective?
6 A He was a sergeant but I believe Sergeant Reichenbach
7 was a third watch sergeant which is a graveyard sergeant at
8 the -- at the time.
9 Q Are sergeants higher ranking than detectives?
10 A Yes.
11 Q And there was a reference -- for the jury, sort of a
12 reference to the Boulder Police Department being a
13 paramilitary organization. Do you understand what
14 “paramilitary” is?
15 A Yes, I do.
16 Q Was it a -- was it a paramilitary organization in 1996?
17 A We were moving away from that paramilitary organization
18 or structure to more of a civilian-type structure.
19 Q And what does that mean?

20 A Instead of having the normal rank and file of “police
21 officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, chief,”
22 Tom Koby at that time downsized the department, eliminating
23 the captains’ positions and the lieutenants’ positions; and
24 he made most of his executive staff upper management, I
25 guess is how they were referred to; and then, through their

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

12

1 decision, the rank of “commander” gets reestablished back
2 into the department.
3 Q Was it nonetheless important to follow a chain of
4 command within this department?
5 A Yes, it was.
6 Q What was your initial role in the JonBenet
7 investigation? And let’s start before it was known to be a
8 murder.
9 A My initial role at that time -- Commander John Eller
10 had taken vacation for two weeks; and in that two-week
11 vacation time, John had placed me in charge of the detective
12 division as an acting commander, and I was also responsible
13 for crimes against persons.
14 Q And that was as of December 26th of ‘96?
15 A Correct.
16 Q What was your direct involvement initially in the -- in
17 the case, if you could describe that for the jury?
18 A The 26th I had taken a vacation day immediately after
19 Christmas, of course; and about nine o’clock in the morning,
20 nine, nine-thirty, something like that, I got a page that
21 said the FBI agent is trying to contact you but can’t reach
22 you through the number, and I didn’t know what that meant
23 ‘cause I was sitting at home. So I called communications,
24 Boulder communications dispatch center, and asked what this
25 page was about; and at that time I was told that we had a

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

13

1 reported kidnapping within the City of Boulder.
2 Q You recall about what time this was?
3 A I’m -- I’m thinking nine, nine-thirty I got the page.
4 Q And do you recall when you got to the department?
5 A I got into the police department around ten,
6 ten-thirty, something like that.
7 Q And was the case still thought to be a kidnapping at
8 that point?
9 A Yes, it was.
10 Q I’m going to skip a little bit on you, Sergeant Mason,
11 before we talk more about the investigation; and I want you
12 to tell the jury a little bit about your training as a law
13 enforcement officer and particularly as it relates to
14 homicides.
15 A I haven’t completed my formal education, but I’ve
16 attended several nationally recognized and -- and one
17 internationally recognized school or schools. I’ve attended
18 a 12-week course for police staffing command which deals
19 with supervising people, building departments from the
20 ground up, just pretty much anything that a command staff
21 officer would have to do.
22 I’ve also attended the Southwestern University
23 two-week course on homicide investigations. I attended a
24 class down in Jacksonville, Florida, for two weeks for major
25 case review and management. And then in June of ‘96, I

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

14

1 attended the FBI Academy, the national FBI Academy, which is
2 a 12-week course. Through that course, I took -- one of the
3 courses there was homicide investigations or suspicious
4 death investigations, however you want to refer to it.
5 Q And that was prior to the events of December of 1996?
6 Did you say that was in June?
7 A Yes.
8 Q Had you also investigated homicides prior to December
9 of 1996?
10 A Yes.
11 Q Can you give us -- give the jury a flavor of how much
12 experience you had as a homicide investigator?
13 A When I was moving through the ranks, we had a -- we had
14 a homicide in Boulder about 1986 that I worked extensively
15 on as a backup detective or as a secondary detective. We
16 worked that for probably five or six months.
17 And then when I went back into the bureau, working
18 initially as a property -- a crimes-against-property
19 sergeant, I would also respond to any of the homicides that

20 were there, and I would work as a backup supervisor with
21 then-Sergeant Joe Pelle. And then when Sergeant Pelle was
22 promoted to commander, I took over his position; and there
23 we investigated, I think, four separate homicides where we
24 were able to arrest and convict three of the four.
25 Q As a result of your role as Ms. Arndt’s supervisor,

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

15

1 were you familiar with her experience as a homicide
2 investigator?
3 A Yes, I was.
4 Q Would you please tell the jury about that experience.
5 A I always found Linda to be very competent, very
6 dedicated, very focused, someone that -- that you could
7 trust on -- trust and someone that was willing to -- to get
8 the job done and put in the extra long hours and -- and stay
9 with it.
10 Q As compared to some of the other officers in the
11 detective bureau, how would you and Ms. Arndt compare as far
12 as experience in investigating homicides as of December of
13 1996?
14 A I would say that -- that Linda and I probably had some
15 of the most experience within the bureau at that time.
16 Q Now, when it became known that the JonBenet case was
17 indeed a homicide rather than a kidnapping, did you have a
18 role, then, in the investigation?
19 A Yes, I did.
20 Q Did that role take you to Georgia as part of the
21 investigation?
22 A Yes, it did.

23 Q I want to talk to you about that trip to Georgia and
24 the events that resulted from that.
25 MR. HALABY: At this time, Your Honor, I’d

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

16

1 interject an objection as to the relevance of the claim
2 being at issue here.
3 THE COURT: And what is the relevance, counsel?
4 MR. JONES: This leads directly to his internal
5 affairs investigation with respect to alleged leaks to the
6 media.
7 THE COURT: Any other comment?
8 MR. HALABY: Yes, and that’s -- that’s the grounds
9 I indicated before. Any personnel matters dealing with him,
10 we submit, are irrelevant to the issue --
11 THE COURT: Overruled.
12 MR. HALABY:-- as to Ms. Arndt’s First Amendment
13 rights.
14 THE COURT: As concerning? I can’t hear you.
15 MR. HALABY:-- as concerning Ms. Arndt’s First
16 Amendment rights. The internal investigation had nothing to
17 do with that.
18 THE COURT: I’m going to give counsel some
19 latitude at this time, counsel. Overruled.
20 A JuROR: Excuse me. We also can’t hear.
21 THE COURT: All right. And keep close to that
22 microphone, counsel.
23 If we need to turn up the volume, ladies and
24 gentlemen, let us know.
25 A JUROR: We can hear him; we can’t hear the

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

17

1 defense.
2 THE COURT: Okay.
3 MR. HALABY: Well, perhaps I should speak in the
4 microphone from now on if that’s right.
5 THE COURT: Or you can just --
6 MR. HALABY: I don’t -- I don’t know if I have the
7 voice but I’ll try.
8 THE COURT: All right.
9 MR. JONES: May I proceed, Your Honor?
10 THE COURT: You may.
11 BY MR. JONES:
12 Q Sergeant Mason, generally speaking, what were you doing
13 in Georgia -- and let me back up. When was it that you went
14 to Georgia?
15 A I believe we went down to -- I believe we flew out to
16 Georgia on the 2nd of January of ‘97.
17 Q So just a few days after JonBenet’s body was found?
18 A Correct.
19 Q And generally speaking, what were you doing in Georgia?
20 A We went to Georgia to basically just do background
21 investigations. We got some information that there had been
22 a major fight in the house between Mr. Ramsey and one of the
23 other people that were there. I don’t remember --
24 Q Does “Mr. White” ring a bell?
25 A “White,” that’s who it was, Mr. White, and we had heard

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

18

1 that there was problems there in the house, and we wanted to
2 find out what was going on. So we flew down to -- to
3 Georgia to -- to check with the neighbors, ask the
4 neighbors, try to talk with the family one on one, you know,
5 just do basic follow-up and background investigations on
6 everyone that we could.

7 Q All right, Sergeant. I don’t want to delve into the
8 specifics of -- of that investigation. I do want to ask you
9 who accompanied you to Georgia.
10 A It was Detective Steve Thomas, Detective Tom Trujillo,
11 Detective Jane Harmer and Detective Ron Gosage and myself.
12 Q All of those folks were members of the investigative
13 team at that point?
14 A Yes, they were.
15 Q And while you were in Georgia, did you have any
16 contacts with the news media?
17 A I’m sorry. I didn’t hear your question.
18 Q Okay. That’s fine. I’ll -- I’ll restate it. And do
19 you need some water?
20 A I’ve got some. Thank you.
21 Q Okay. While you were in Georgia, did you have any
22 contacts with the news media?
23 A Yes, we did.
24 Q Again, without going into great detail, can you give
25 the jury a flavor of -- of those contacts?

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

19

1 A Much of the contacts that we had with the jury (sic)
2 were structured press releases. However --
3 Q Sergeant, I think you said “the jury.” Did you mean
4 “the media?”
5 A Yes.
6 Q All right.
7 A Excuse me.
8 Q That’s -- that’s fine. That’s fine.
9 A -- were structured. However, there were two reporters

10 that were there that were from the Boulder area that I had
11 worked with previously that I had a good working
12 relationship with. One was Phil Lebeau who was with the
13 Channel 4 News station and then Ali Krupski who was with the
14 Boulder Daily Camera.
15 Q At any point in your contacts with those two reporters,
16 did you talk about details of the investigation?
17 A No.
18 Q What was your understanding about -- well, let me --
19 let me back up. Had you had any conversations with
20 Commander Eller before going to Georgia about dealings with
21 the media?
22 A John had reminded me that all releases should be
23 conducted through him, then-Chief Tom Koby and Leslie Aaholm
24 and to be very cautious with the media and not to get
25 trapped.

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

20

1 Q Not to get trapped? Sergeant Mason, in your prior
2 experience, had you had any dealings with the media?
3 A Quite a bit.
4 Q Were you aware of what the policy was of the department
5 concerning media contacts prior to Ramsey?
6 A Yes, I did.
7 Q Let me show you a blowup, but I would first ask that
8 the witness look at Exhibit 38.
9 (The plaintiff’s exhibit notebook was placed
10 before the witness by the clerk.)

11 THE COURT: Do we have exhibit notebooks for the
12 jury?
13 MR. JONES: Your Honor, we don’t have any
14 stipulations. So nothing has been admitted. We do have the
15 notebooks that will allow us to give the jury the exhibits
16 as the exhibits are admitted.
17 THE COURT: Did the parties attempt to get a
18 stipulation on the exhibits?
19 MR. JONES: Your Honor, each and every one of our
20 exhibits were objected to.
21 MR. HALABY: I -- I think that’s -- that has been
22 stipulated to.
23 THE COURT: Well, how many exhibits have been
24 stipulated to?
25 MR. JONES: None.

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

21

1 MR. HALABY: That one clearly has been stipulated
2 to.
3 THE COURT: How many do you have that you propose
4 to offer?
5 MR. JONES: Your Honor, we have, I think, 98
6 exhibits; and I’m sorry but they objected to each and every
7 one of them.
8 THE COURT: Well, let me make it abundantly clear
9 to both sides I will lose my patience quickly if I have to

10 listen to foundation being laid for 98 exhibits and probably
11 a like number from opposing counsel.
12 Now, this matter, gentlemen, needs to be resolved
13 at the noon hour. And if you have some legitimate concerns
14 about some of those exhibits, all well and good; of course
15 I’ll hear you on the foundation. But in other respects, I
16 expect you to take care of this matter without further
17 involvement of me except to accept a number of stipulated
18 exhibits.
19 All right, counsel.
20 BY MR. JONES:
21 Q What is Exhibit 38, Mr.-- or Sergeant Mason?
22 A It’s part of the Boulder Police Department’s rules --
23 Q And--24 A -- that we had in place.
25 Q And which rule in particular?

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

22

1 A Well, I just have the entire face sheet of all rules, 1
2 toll.
3 Q And does Rule 11 address security of police
4 information?
5 A Yes, it does.
6 MR. JONES: May I approach, Your Honor?
7 THE COURT: You may.

8 BY MR. JONES:
9 Q Can you identify this as a blowup of Exhibit 38 and
10 particularly a portion of Rule 11?
11 A Yes, it is.
12 Q All right.
13 MR. JONES: Might I display this to the jury, Your
14 Honor? And we will get those jury notebooks straightened
15 out.
16 THE COURT: In fact, has this been stipulated?
17 MR. JONES: Counsel just indicated, yes, it has.
18 THE COURT: And you’re now offering this one page
19 or the entire exhibit?
20 MR. JONES: I would like to offer the entire
21 exhibit, particularly if it’s now been stipulated to.
22 THE COURT: Exhibit number again is?
23 MR. JONES: Thirty-eight.
24 MR. HALABY: We have no objection to Exhibit 38,
25 Your Honor.

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

23

1 THE COURT: Thirty-eight is received and may be
2 published.
3 (Plaintiff’s Exhibit 38 was received in evidence.
4 MR. JONES: Your Honor, we have the -- the
5 notebooks and we can provide 38. I think the most efficient
6 way, though, would be for me to continue with my examination
7 while we get that organized.

8 THE COURT: What we’re going to try to do, ladies
9 and gentlemen, is get each of you a notebook. I have been
10 provided, for example, with these notebooks up here, one set
11 for the plaintiff and one set from the defendant; and why I
12 want the stipulated exhibits is that means a lot of them can
13 be put in the notebooks and you don’t have to put them in
14 yourselves. So we’re going to work on this during the lunch
15 hour, and I trust that the lawyers will make some progress
16 during that period of time.
17 All right, counsel. Go ahead.
18 MR. HALABY: Your Honor, I think there’s some
19 confusion. In looking at the exhibits provided to us by the
20 plaintiffs, we look at Exhibit 38 and -- and I don’t see in
21 there this Rule 11 he’s now discussing. Exhibit 38 is the
22 “Boulder Police Department General Order 54-1, Public
23 Information & Media Relations” with regards to --
24 THE COURT: Keep your voice up now, counsel.
25 MR. HALABY: We have two different exhibits here,

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

24

1 Your Honor.
2 MR. JONES: No. It just continues. Apparently
3 the first page is --
4 MR. HALABY: Well, Your Honor, we have -- we have
S an exhibit marked Exhibit 38 that starts with “General Order
6 54-1.” I’m now being shown the one the court clerk has that

7 has the same exhibit number, 38, but it’s on a page that we
8 don’t have in our compilation provided to us by plaintiff.
9 MR. JONES: Here, counsel. That’s it. Sorry for
10 the mistake.
11 MR. HALABY: That’s the reason for the confusion,
12 Your Honor.
13 THE COURT: All right. Now, any objection to the
14 correct Exhibit 38?
15 (There was an off-the-record discussion by
16 Mr. Halaby and Chief Koby.)
17 MR. HALABY: Now having the complete exhibit, we
18 have no objection, Your Honor.
19 THE COURT: All right. It’s received.
20 (Plaintiff’s Exhibit 38 was again received in
21 evidence.)
22 THE COURT: Go ahead, counsel.
23 BY MR. JONES:
24 Q Does Exhibit 38, and particularly Rule 11, reflect what
25 was generally in place with respect to security of police

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

25

1 information as of December 1996?
2 A Yes, it is.
3 Q And with respect to ongoing investigations and Rule
4 11(b), what was the policy at that point of the department
5 about communications with the media? If you could just
6 refer to the language of Rule 11(b), Sergeant Mason.
7 A Rule 11(b) states:“Communicate any information which
8 may jeopardize an investigation, arrest, police action or
9 prosecution or which may aid a person to escape, destroy or
10 remove evidence; or”...
11 Q And is this the rule that you had functioned under
12 prior to the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation?
13 A This rule, yes.
14 Q Now, once the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation
15 began, I think you said that Sergeant -- or Commander Eller
16 had told you what the policy was going to be for that case,
17 correct?
18 A Correct.
19 Q Was it broader than this rule?
20 A No. It was stricter.

21 Q Okay. Excuse me. What do you mean by “stricter?”
22 A What I recall John telling me was that the only people
23 that were authorized to release any information would be
24 himself, then-Chief Tom Koby and Leslie Aaholm, and all
25 communications from the police department would be cleared

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

26

1 first through him.
2 Q And in light of that, did you -- did you release any
3 information to the reporters that you talked to in Georgia?
4 A No.
5 Q Upon your return from Georgia -- well, tell us, when --
6 when did you come back from Georgia?
7 A We returned to Denver, to the DIA, on January the 5th
8 of 1997.
9 Q Who met you at DIA?
10 A There at DIA to meet us was the Denver Police
11 Department. They took us off the -- the airport, along with
12 John Eller and Sergeant Tom Wickman.
13 Q And tell us about your -- your interrelations with
14 Commander Eller at DIA.
15 MR. HALABY: I’m going to object again on the
16 basis of relevancy.
17 THE COURT: Overruled. You may answer the
18 question, sir.
19 THE WITNESS: Thank you, sir.
20 A Prior to flying into DIA, I had talked -- I had spoken
21 to John on the phone several times during the day. He had
22 told me that he wanted to debrief everything that had been
23 going on down in Roswell and that we were going to do that
24 as soon as we got back. We were due back in about eleven

25 o’clock if I recall.

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

27

1 Q Did he follow up on that when you arrived at DIA?
2 A Yes. He said that we would be going from there to the
3 police department to where we would debrief the
4 investigation and -- and everything that had been done down
5 there.
6 Q And what time did you arrive back at the department?
7 A I’m guessing it was probably 11:30 at night, quarter to
8 twelve, something like that. It seemed like -- I don’t
9 remember the specific time when we got back into the police
10 department, but it was very late at night.
11 Q What happened when you arrived at the department?
12 A I went into -- into my office at the time, and I
13 started checking my voice mail to see how many messages were
14 there, and there were too numerous to even try to get
15 through that night. While I was there going through the --
16 through my voice mail, John Eller came into the office and
17 said,“Come with me.”
18 And I asked him, I said,“Are we going to -- are
19 we going to debrief this now?”
20 And he goes,“No, we’re going somewhere else.”
21 And I said,“Where are we going?”
22 And he said,“We’re going up to the chief’s
23 office.”
24 And I asked him,“What’s going on?”
25 And he said,“You’ll see when we get there.”

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

28

1 Q Did you go to the chief’s office?
2 A Yes, we did.
3 Q Who -- who else was present?
4 A When I first walked in, John escorted me or I followed
5 him pretty much. Sergeant Tom Wickman was in there.
6 Sergeant Robert Thomas who was then the internal affairs
7 investigator was there. Then Tom Koby -- Chief Tom Koby was
8 in his office which is adjacent to the conference room where
9 we -- where we met, and I was told that a union rep. from
10 the BBPA was coming, and then just a few minutes later Greg
11 Perry showed up who was our -- our union president at the
12 time.
13 Q Were you told why a union rep. was showing up?
14 A I asked several times what was going on, and I was told
15 by Eller that as soon as Greg got there he would let me know
16 what’s going on or he would tell me what was going on.
17 Q Did there come a time where it was revealed to you what
18 was going on?
19 A Yes. As soon as the union president, Greg Perry,
20 arrived, John Eller sat down and he made the accusations
21 that I had released unauthorized information to the news
22 media; that I had, in fact, released unauthorized
23 information to the news media which jeopardized not only the
24 investigation but also hurt the relationships between the
25 other agencies that had been working with us.

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

29

1 Q Were you ever told how this information that you had
2 supposedly released jeopardized the investigation?
3 A No.
4 MR. HALABY: Your Honor, just so my -- the record
5 is clear, can my continuing objection as to this line of
6 questioning --
7 THE COURT: Yes, sir.
8 MR. HALABY:-- be noted? Thank you.
9 BY MR. JONES:
10 Q And what were you told was going to be done, Sergeant
11 Mason, in light of what Commander Eller told you?
12 A Because of the -- the accusations that John Eller made
13 against me that evening, Chief Koby came out, advised me
14 that I was then being suspended, being placed on
15 administrative leave until further notice. Then I was -- I
16 had to surrender my -- my weapon, my commission card and my
17 badge.
18 Q Did they take your car keys, too?
19 A They -- yes. I had to call my son to come and get me
20 that night.
21 Q Did you ever return to the Ramsey case?
22 A No. I was told that night to stay away from the case;
23 that I was not to have anything to do with the case; that I
24 was not to talk to any of the investigators; that I was to
25 have nothing to do with it; that I was to stay totally away

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

30

1 from it.
2 Q Did you believe your job to be at risk?
3 A Absolutely. I knew it was.
4 Q Were you subjected to an internal affairs
5 investigation?
6 A Yes, I was.
7 Q I’d ask you to look at Exhibit 40.
8 A (The witness complied.) Yes.
9 Q Please tell the jury what Exhibit 40 is.
10 A This was a press release which was put out on January
11 the 7th, 19--- it says ‘96.
12 Q You believe that to be a typo?
13 A I believe it is, yes. It should be ‘97.
14 Q Your recollection is the announcement about the -- your
15 situation was January 7 of 1997?
16 A January the 5th. This -- this press release is dated
17 January the 7th,‘90 -- it should be 1997.
18 Q Two days afterwards?
19 A Two days after.
20 Q And what was the City of Boulder saying about your
21 situation and particularly in Paragraph 1, Sergeant Mason?
22 A It says:“Boulder Police Chief”--
23 MR. HALABY: Excuse me. Excuse me, Your Honor.
24 I’d object to any reading from the document unless and until
25 it’s admitted.

LARRY MASON - DIRECT (JONES)

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1 MR. JONES: We’ll offer it, Your Honor.
2 MR. HALABY: And we’d object as to -- on the
3 grounds of relevancy.
4 THE COURT: Overruled.
5 (Plaintiff’s Exhibit 40 was received in evidence.)
6 BY MR. JONES:
7 Q Would you please read the jury Exhib--- Paragraph 1.
8 A “Statement from the City of Boulder Media Relations
9 Office: Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby has removed Detective
10 Sergeant Larry Mason from the Ramsey homicide investigation
11 effective Sunday, January the 5th. In doing so, the police
12 chief explained that when this investigation began the
13 mission would be -- would be a very focused one: Finding
14 out who is responsible and securing a conviction.”
15 Q And does it go on to say that -- well, what does it say
16 about being distracted?
17 A It says:“All other issues, including intense media
18 scrutiny, will not be allowed to deter the Boulder Police
19 Department from its singular focus. The chief has made it
20 clear that anyone distracted from this focus will be
21 reassigned.”
22 Q Were you distracted from the focus on the
23 investigation?
24 A No, I was not.
25 Q Who conducted the internal affairs investigation of

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1 you?