Justice Served to Kimball Mason
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I had the day off, I read in the paper that Kimball Mason would be sentenced at 10 AM this morning, and I didn’t have an appointment until 12:30. I figured I was safe to attend the sentencing and witness local history.
I learned when a lawyer says he’ll be brief, don’t believe him. The sentencing took an entire three hours, with only one 15-minute recess.
I saw many locally-known faces, including the beautiful television reporters, cops, lawyers, and Dean Miller from the Post Register. Dean Miller worked around the room quite a bit, and at one point raised his hand for a few minutes while a witness was testifying. He had already given a note to the bailiff, and seemed to be signalling to either the judge, the witness, the court reporter, or the court clerk. It was a little strange, and I did not see if anyone acknowledged him.
The sentencing proceeded with the prosecution, led by a Rosenthal whom I took to be from the Attorney General’s office in Boise, declining to call any witnesses. Kimball’s defense, Mr. Fred Hoopes from Idaho Falls, called six character witnesses.The defense witnesses called were a local lawyer, doctor, former arts director, a divorced woman Kimball helped out, a dentist from Helena (but who lived used to live here), and even Idaho Supreme Court Justice Boyle. All but Justice Boyle were there voluntarily. Justice Boyle had some legal or ethical (or both) conflict since he had presided over cases involving Mason, so he was there under subpoena. Justice Boyle made it clear he had never socialized with Kimball and only knew him professionally, but he did testify Kimball was extremely professional in his job. All witnesses testified to extraordinary and truly selfless acts that they had witnessed from Kimball Mason over several years.
It was during these witness testimonies that I realized I had somehow again seated myself in front of that jerk. You know that jerk, the guy in the back row who cracks jokes and talks like he is Judge Judy or Mr. Know-it-all. Of course he is just loud enough for the crowd to hear but not the lawyers, so other people turn and look at me like I’m the one causing the commotion. I seem magnetized to these jerks. At the recess I made sure to scoot to the other end of the bench.
After the recess, Rosenthal spent about twenty minutes laying out the state’s case for why Kimball had known better, had broken the public’s trust, and deserved more than probation. Hoopes then spent about twenty minutes (he said he’d be brief) laying out his case for why Kimball should be given a more lenient sentence, trying to distance Kimball’s circumstances from other case examples given by the prosecution. Kimball himself then spent about twenty minutes apologizing to everyone and expressing his sorrow. He said he felt he had been punished severely already, given that his career was over and he had burned off many of his friendships.
The judge finally spent about twenty minutes giving his rationale and sentencing Kimball Mason to five years in Idaho prison, with at least one year fixed (which I suppose means ‘minimum’?) The judge cited a letter from Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman which said that Kimball had embarrassed all city workers, and that it would take a long time to rebuild the residents’ trust.
You could tell it would likely go down that way. The judge alluded several times to the seriousness of altering a judge’s order after it was issued, and how unheard of and severe that offense was. He started to ask Kimball a little about why Kimball did the crime or how he went about it, but admitted he was not there to examine him. Kimball said he would get to an explanation later, but I don’t recall really hearing one. He alluded to becoming fascinated with guns, as if he suffered an addiction, but never really came out and say it. He vehemently denied being arrogant and said he felt he was not above the law.
When the sentence was handed down, I felt it was appropriate. Kimball Mason knew better than most people to commit those crimes. I think of it as on the same line of why we do not prosecute mentally incompetent people: because they could not know their actions. Kimball Mason was on the other extreme of that: he knew extremely well his actions, and he continued to commit the crimes over several years. The thefts also involved more than guns, apparently paintball guns, BB-guns, knives, and even sunglasses were stolen by Kimball Mason.
Kimball Mason deserved more than probation, but I can agree that it was his first offense after a long life of helping numerous other people. The maximum sentence would not have been appropriate, either. It was hard even for me to see Mason’s family and the emotional effect the sentence had on them.
So did Kimball Mason suffer from a gun-collecting addiction or did he really feel he was above the law? I have my own idea from the evidence produced, but the only thing that matters is justice has been served and Kimball will not get the chance to abuse this type of power ever again.
As people started to leave the courtroom, that jerk called out, “So much for justice!” Kimball Mason has left an open sore in our community. How long and what will it take to heal this open sore?
UPDATED STORIES:
Kimball Mason and his cronies almost got away with it
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Comments
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0 Just saw on the news that there are hundreds of unaccounted for items. I saw in the news a while ago that Kimball had paid restitution on the items he admitted stealing. I’m not sure if that counts these hundreds. If Kimball has only paid off the items he admitted to in those 19 admitted thefts then I take back what I said about him having paid for what he stole.
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0 0 On further reflection, I’m changing my mind more and more on the sentence and I agree its too light but not for the reasons most cite. I was just viewing some of the coverage thats on kpvi.com and they mentioned how Kimball had compromised cases to get guns. I hadn’t considered that very much even though I was aware of several cases where he had dismissed all criminal charges in exchange for the forfeiture of guns. The more I think about this the more I wonder how many criminals walked free just so Kimball could get guns.
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0 0 I like your accuracy, Chiasm. It seems like there are so many layers to this story and each time a news organization gets invovled, new information comes out. I, for one, will be interested to know what Dean Miller of the Post Register was doing. I know the PR had to have their attorneys petition or file a motion, or whatever it’s called, for them to get the info they have.
From the PR breaking news e-mail, at 5:22 p.m., it says: “Idaho Falls police are still searching for guns former prosecutor Kimball Mason took from the department’s evidence lockers. The Idaho Attorney General’s Office today released a copy of its 1,508-page investigative file. You can download the entire (38 megabyte) file by clicking on this link:http://www.postregister.com/kimballmason/ A hard copy will be made available to the public to peruse at the Post Register front desk later this week.” I’m not sure if one needs an online subscription to this or not. I suspect not. Much like Scouts Honor and the Motherhood and Meth series, which are accessible without subscriptions, I think the PR wants to make this info available to all.
Good work “IdahoFallz Team” for sharing your thoughts and beliefs of why things went the way they did in his sentencing. Great job, Mr. Joe Vandal Friday, in reporting it to us.
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I think its an appropriate sentence. Kimball basically embezzled from the company he worked for. Except for the public trust issue what he did is no different in principle from an accountant who cooks the books to pad his pocket or an employee who steals from the till over a length of time, etc. Many of the embezzlers are never able to pay back the money they stole because they have already spent it whereas Kimball has already paid back what he stole. And most embezzlers with no prior record will never do a year in prison.
As I mentioned the only difference is the public trust and its clear to me that Kimball received the 1 to 5 years for this.
My only disappointment in the sentence is that it sounds like Kimball will actually serve his time in prison. It would have been much better in my opinion if he had to do it locally at the Bonneville County jail. Wherever he serves he’ll have to be placed in special housing for his own protection and at the Bonneville jail that means he would be up front where every day he would see the Idaho Falls police officers coming and going. The shame factor of it would be very punitive but he won’t have to deal with that in prison.