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Forum Name: old depo and interview threads
Topic ID: 47
Message ID: 0
#0, Thomas depo 11 - Master Affidavit
Posted by jameson on May-16-03 at 07:57 PM
Q. With respect to what you have referred to as a master affidavit, could you please describe what
a master affidavit is?

A. Certainly. At some point in, I believe it was 1997, the police department asked me to be the
affiant on a master affidavit and basically the case was reaching a proportion that it needed to be
condensed into affidavit form in the event a search and/or arrest warrant were necessary to carry out
on this case. And given that assignment I tried then over the course of the next several, many months
to keep that affidavit current.

Q. When you say keep the affidavit current, how was the affidavit prepared or being prepared?

A. It was being prepared as new information became available that was relevant to include inside
this affidavit, that information would be shared with me and I would include that in the narrative.

Q. Now, when you say include that in the narrative, were you preparing an ongoing written narrative
at the time?

A. Yes.

Q. And where did you keep a copy of this ongoing written narrative?

A. Either in my briefcase or in my desk inside the Boulder Police Department situation room were
typically the only two places that the -- that the affidavit would be left.

Q. Could you describe what form it was being kept in? By example, was it kept in a notebook?
Was it kept on separate sheets of paper? How was it kept physically?

A. Eight and a half by 11 white, unbound paper, typically stapled with a heavy-duty stapler in the
upper left-hand corner.

Q. And where were those pages being kept physically, in a file folder? In a book? What?

A. In my briefcase or my desk. But if you're saying how were those stored? Yeah, inside a
manila-type folder.

Q. Was the folder labeled master affidavit?

A. I don't recall.

Q. Was there any marking on the folder as to what it was that was being contained there?

A. No, but it's very apparent what it is if you go looking for it.

Q. Do you know how long you kept that master affidavit before it was discontinued?

A. If memory serves, in the spring of 1998 when Beckner said that we weren't going to make a
physical custodial arrest and that the case was headed for the DA's office and possibly a grand jury,
that was ceased.

Q. Did Mark Beckner or anyone else tell you what you should do with the master affidavit that you
had in your possession?

A. Not that I recall. That would have been -- no, not that I recall; I don't recall any instruction like
that. It would have and likely and probably did just simply wind up in the at the time 80-plus case file
notebooks in that room.

Q. So you turned the affidavit over at some point to the police --

A. Yeah.

Q. -- to the other people in the police department?

A. Right, that's in -- that's inside the police department.

Q. Okay. Do you know if you made a copy of that for your own use?

A. I don't know that I did.

Q. Okay. Do you know how many pages the master affidavit was when you were told to
discontinue making it?

A. Well, it was continually being updated and drafted and pencil marked and everything else but I
would put it at the time that I last saw it I don't know if anybody ever continued it after I left the police
department, but 50, 60, 70, 80-plus pages maybe.

Q. Do you know who made the decision as to what to include in the master affidavit?

A. Well, I did partly, as did Tom Wickman, Mark Beckner. On occasion, you know, we would run
ideas and thoughts by the in-house legal advisor, Bob Keatley. Kim Stewart had it for a period of time
and I think she did some updating or amending or suggesting to it. It was sort of a continuing work in
progress. And when a detective in the room had information that was relevant to the affidavit, it would
typically be included.

Q. Were you the only person that physically included the information or did other people have access
to it?

A. Well, two questions. Did other people have access to it. Yes. And was I the only one that
physically made inclusions to it? Mr. Hoffman, do you mean by way of typewriting?

Q. Yes, by way of actual handwritten notations or typewritten?

A. Yes, that's my recollection.

Q. All right. So nobody that you remember made any physical notations or changes in the master
affidavit beside yourself?

A. No. I'm saying others did in the room make physical changes to it, line throughs, additions,
deletions, et cetera, as information, you know, became available or got stale or whatever the case might
be.