Mason pleads guiltyFormer Idaho Falls prosecutor admits stealing 19 guns from police department evidence locker
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By PHIL DAVIDSON
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pdavidson@postregister.com
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Robert Bower / Post Register - Kimball Mason talks with attorneys and court officials Wednesday morning at the Bonneville County Courthouse. |
Kimball Mason's first appearance in court was highlighted by the former Idaho Falls city prosecutor pleading guilty to three felonies and the revelation that he could have faced 16 additional charges. Mason's arraignment hearing Wednesday marked the first time he admitted in open court that he had stolen guns from the Idaho Falls Police Department's evidence locker. In mid-March, his attorney, Fred Hoopes, struck a plea deal with Jay Rosenthal, a deputy Idaho attorney general. The deal calls for Mason to be charged with two counts of grand theft and one count of falsifying a court document. In return, the attorney general's office agreed to drop additional charges yielded from an investigation it began in November. The agreement also calls for Mason to surrender his law license and pay restitution for the stolen property to the city, for the felonies to remain on his record permanently and for the state to recommend he serve a year in "a county jail." (Under state law, grand theft calls for up to 14 years in prison.) Attorney General Lawrence Wasden issued a news release Wednesday saying the additional 16 counts were related to other guns Mason stole. The recommended jail time, Wasden said in the release, recognizes that Mason has accepted responsibility for his misconduct but is harsher than the sentences usually received by offenders with no prior criminal records. "The plea agreement
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