Clerks say they confronted Mason

The former Idaho Falls prosecutor was given a list of grievances by frustrated co-workers two years ago.

By PHIL DAVIDSON

pdavidson@postregister.com

Kimball Mason may have enjoyed implicit trust from many at the Bonneville County Courthouse, but not everyone let the former city prosecutor go unquestioned.

Two years ago, court clerks and court supervisors met with Mason, who is serving time in a minimum security prison for stealing from the Idaho Falls Police Department evidence room, to confront him with their grievances.

They wrote a memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Post Register, listing 14 examples of responsibilities Mason ignored and expected them to tend to.

The list includes complaints that Mason:

• Amended citations on defendants' copies, not originals, and did not submit new paperwork.

• Did not stay for No Contact Order hearings.

• Did not stay for pretrial hearings.

• Used clerks' computers, even though he had the state's court records system on his computer at work.

• Didn't return phone calls so victims could never reach him. They called the clerks instead.

• Did not provide motions or orders for restitution.

Mason, who did not have a secretary for most of the 12 years he served as Idaho Falls' prosecutor, also relied on the clerks to provide that service for him, according to the memo.

Burt Butler, the 7th Judicial District's trial court administrator, said he recalled Deputy Court Clerk Heather Matheson as being the impetus behind the meeting.

Matheson, who is named in the Idaho Attorney General's Sept. 6 affidavit as someone who witnessed Mason using magistrate judges' signature stamps on various forms and orders, declined to comment on the meeting.

That affidavit convinced Senior 7th District Magistrate Judge Robert Brower last week to issue a warrant for Mason's arrest on 13 new felonies. The Attorney General's Office alleges Mason used judges' signature stamps on six different orders dating back to 2002 to persuade evidence custodians to give him guns from IFPD's property room. The other seven charges are for grand theft relating to guns Mason stole from the department, the Attorney General's Office alleges.

Butler's assessment of the August 2004 meeting was that the clerks were trying to make it clear to Mason that he couldn't continue what he was doing at the county's expense.

He also said it signified an attempt to stand up to Mason, who with approximately 25 years prosecuting cases in Bonneville County carried a lot of clout.

"This was probably one of the few times Kimball Mason ever got questioned," Butler said.

Whether Mason complied with the clerks' requests is unknown, as Matheson, who now works for the Bonneville County Prosecutor, declined to comment on that as well.

But Court Operations Manager Kelli Moss, who also attended the meeting, shed some insight into it.

"It wasn't received well," she said.

Cops and Courts reporter Phil Davidson can be reached at 542-6750.