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Masters: Cop’s big ego stole half my life

By Eliott C. McLaughlin CNN

GREELEY, Colorado (CNN) — Tim Masters often drank heavily before he was imprisoned for murder in 1999, but he said he’s sworn off the stuff in an interview Wednesday, his first full day of freedom in nearly nine years.

Just because I don’t look angry doesn’t mean I don’t have a whole lot of anger inside, Masters said. I don’t want to get drunk. People get drunk, they have no self control. I don’t want to get mad or do anything stupid or say something stupid. I’d rather just stay sober.

The anger he fears unleashing is aimed squarely at the Fort Collins Police Department, which doggedly pursued him for almost 12 years before charging him with the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick — a crime he has always insisted he didn’t commit.

Masters, 36, was released Tuesday from prison after new DNA evidence pointed to someone else. He will find out next month if he will stand trial again, but a prosecutor said Monday that charges against Masters could be dismissed. Watch Masters talk about his freedom

Speaking with CNN about 24 hours after his release, Masters said he is relieved to be out of prison, but he can’t shake the feeling this saga might not be over.

He also can’t shake his anger at one investigator in particular.

My opinion is that Jim Broderick, the guy in charge of it, has a very big ego and would not allow anything or anyone to convince him that he was wrong, Masters said.

He made up his mind in the beginning, from day one when he walked into my bedroom and saw my horror drawings and war stories, that I was guilty. Nothing would change his mind.

Broderick did not return a call Wednesday to his office. His answering machine said he would not be checking messages until the end of the month.

Michael Goodbee, one of the special prosecutors handling the Masters hearings, said in court that Broderick was out of town on a family emergency. Broderick told CNN in November, before the DNA evidence was confirmed, that he still believed Masters was the killer. The key players

Masters was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence — a collection of gory sketches and narratives, a few knives and a forensic psychologist’s testimony that Masters’ stories and artwork indicated he fantasized about sexual homicides.

He was also the first person to find Hettrick’s body. He didn’t immediately report it, he said, because he thought it was a mannequin and someone was playing a prank.

It’s just unbelievable because here’s all these stories and drawings that have no nexus with the crime. There’s no one being stabbed in the back. There’s no one being sexually mutilated, he said. The only thing they had in common with this crime is there was violence.

Lots of kids in high school sketch violent scenes and scribe violent stories, Masters said. Go to any high school, he said, and you’ll likely find similar artwork and writings.

They won their case by assassinating my character, he said.

Masters said he’s been angry for years. Though his father Clyde, who died while Masters was in prison, taught him to never show his emotions, his fellow inmates were aware of his bitterness, he said.

My best friend who sat across from me at the chow hall, he used to actually sit there and say, ‘Damn, I’ve got to look across at this surly face every day? Look at your face. You look mad all the time.’

His frustration began to wane when the media started reporting on his case about six months ago. The letters he received in prison and support from fellow inmates helped, he said, but the anger is still going to be there. There’s no way to get around that. It’s still inside.

Masters said he can’t thank his family enough for standing by him. And though he spoke with reverence of his father, there was an undertone of resentment in his words. It was his father, he said, who initially told him to cooperate with police, a decision that ultimately would be his undoing.

His father allowed police to search their trailer. He also allowed Masters to be interrogated for hours without an attorney. Police would use the evidence and interrogation to convict Masters in 1999.

We’ll cooperate with them and give them anything they want and then they’ll see that you didn’t have anything to do with this and they’ll move on, Masters recalled his father telling him in 1987. It turns out that by cooperating with them it just encouraged them, because I was the easiest suspect to go after.

Clyde Masters knew his son hadn’t committed the crime, but he thought police were there to help, Masters said. His father was in the Navy for 22 years and felt you should obey authority, he added.

Well, you know what? You shouldn’t always submit to authority. Our country wouldn’t exist if everyone submitted to authority, he said. It’s just a shame Dad didn’t know how the system was.

In a news conference after his release, Masters said he wanted only to see his family. He was whisked away from the courthouse to the local Elks Lodge, which his aunts and uncles had rented. At the party, he met some of his younger relatives for the first time.

Everybody didn’t get to come up there and visit me over the years, and the cousins, the younger ones, have had kids of their own and I don’t know any of them, so I’m trying to learn everyone’s name and not succeeding, Masters said.

His first meal was two pieces of grocery store fried chicken — which he ate simultaneously — and a glass of lemonade. The chicken was fantastic, he said.

I didn’t even eat anything else with it. I just had two pieces of chicken there and people are shaking my hand and leaving like, ‘Ugh, I got grease on my hand,’ he said with a chuckle. Sorry.

During visits with family members, he learned how much the world had changed since he was locked up. Everyone had high-tech cell phones with cameras. His cousins and nephews were showing him YouTube and their MySpace pages.

Despite the changes all around him, the changes within him seem negligible, he said.

I don’t feel a whole lot different other than a lot of emotional baggage, he said. Other people would be able to tell you better than I would how much I’ve changed.

His freedom still seems like a dream at times, he said. As for trying to recover the years he feels were wrongly taken from him — the years in high school and in the Navy when he was pegged as a murderer or the decade he spent in a prison cell — he understands they’re gone forever.

You can’t get any time back, he said, quipping, My youth and my hair, gone.

Though there are strong indications that Masters could be fully exonerated in February, he is not getting his hopes too high — not after the events of the past two decades.

For me, it’s not over until it’s over. They haven’t dismissed any charges. I’m out on bond, so I’m not completely free yet, he said.

Masters said he and his legal team are prepared in the event of a new trial.

Whatever happens, happens. We’re ready. E-mail to a friend

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Do you need a style consultant?

(LifeWire) — When it comes to fashion, Deb Busser needs help — and she knows it.

I don’t like shopping, says Busser, a Boston-area corporate speaker and trainer. I don’t think I am particularly good at it. And yet it is important in my work to look really put together.

So about a year ago she hired Ginger Burr, president of Total Image Consultants, to help upgrade her look.

Ginger’s fee was less than the cost of buying the one ‘bad’ suit that I would probably have chosen without her help, Busser says.

The makeover has been a staple on daytime talk shows for years, but reality television programs like TLC’s What Not to Wear, Bravo’s Tim Gunn’s Guide To Style and most recently Lifetime’s How To Look Good Naked are spreading the word about how style consultants can help everyday people like Busser get out of their style rut.

Like the stars of these shows, real-life style consultants will spend time paring down an unsuitable wardrobe. Then they’ll show a client exactly what to do with what’s left, and how to integrate new purchases into what they already own.

People come to us for a number of reasons, but the overlying theme is that they want to be better seen, heard and understood, says Robin Baab, creative director at The Image Studios, based in Chicago. We work with everyone from students to rock stars, stay-at-home moms and CEOs.

Help for the rest of us

January is a natural time for people to seek a makeover, says TIC’s Burr.

Right after the new year there does tend to be a wave of interest — either people who’ve made a new year’s resolution to update their image and are trying to get back on track after the holidays or they’ve received a makeover as a gift, she says.

The growing popularity of makeover shows on television is a boon for business, too.

These shows often help women realize that everyone can look good, it’s just a matter of making wise choices, Burr says, Of course, most of them want the help without exposing themselves to millions of viewers.

Shopping days with Burr usually run two to three hours and cost $160 per hour, in addition to the cost of clothing; other consultants interviewed charge similar fees.

Burr is open to working within a fixed budget, even finding things on sale for her more cost-conscious clients. Most image-consulting firms have hair and makeup experts on staff, or can put you in touch with some, to complete a makeover for a similar fee.

You don’t have to hire a consultant to help you choose a new look, however. Many stores offer such services as well.

As Americans, we generally have a lot of clothing but not necessarily great wardrobes, says Jose Parron, director of the Image Studio at Barneys New York.

Some people love to shop and they can buy great things, but sometimes they have trouble putting it all together. I take my clients from where they are to where they want to be.

At their first meeting, Parron brought client Dorothy Rabinowitz a black jacket that she fell in love with on the spot. It was as if he’d read my mind, she says.

As Parron went through her closet, I heard a lot of ‘You can’t wear this, you can’t wear that’, says Rabinowitz, a writer and editor at The Wall Street Journal. But he also ended up putting together a number of new outfits with things I’d already owned but didn’t know how to wear.

He also managed to get her to wear high heels after decades of living in flats.

There’s no charge for taking advantage of the magic touch of personal shoppers at Barneys New York and most other major U.S. department stores. However, you should be prepared to spend a substantial amount of money on clothes. It’s an expensive investment but it’s certainly worth it, says Rabinowitz.

Where to start

To find an image or style consultant, ask around: Rabinowitz heard about Parron through her personal trainer.

Most of my clients come to me by word of mouth, referred by friends or co-workers, says Amanda Sanders, a stylist with New York Image Consultants.

If you’re still unsure about a company’s credentials, you can ask them to put you in touch with some existing clients to get a feel for how others rate the experience.

Most importantly, be open to change, but make sure you choose someone you’re comfortable with and can trust. Change is hard and personal change is even tougher, says Parron. You do it when you’re ready.

Also, personal shoppers work only at their store and may earn a commission from what you buy.
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Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by two nonprofit journalism groups.

In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003, reads an overview of the examination, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

According to the study, Bush and seven top officials — including Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice — made 935 false statements about Iraq during those two years.

The study was based on a searchable database compiled of primary sources, such as official government transcripts and speeches, and secondary sources — mainly quotes from major media organizations.

The study says Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein’s possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda.

Bush has consistently asserted that at the time he and other officials made the statements, the intelligence community of the U.S. and several other nations, including Britain, believed Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

He has repeatedly said that despite the intelligence flaws, removing Hussein from power was the right thing to do.

The study, released Tuesday, says Powell had the second-highest number of false statements, with 244 about weapons and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Press Secretary Ari Fleischer each made 109 false statements, it says. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made 85, Rice made 56, Cheney made 48 and Scott McLellan, also a press secretary, made 14, the study says.

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda, the report reads, citing multiple government reports, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the 9/11 Commission and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, which reported that Hussein had suspended Iraq’s nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to revive it.

The overview of the study also calls the media to task, saying most media outlets didn’t do enough to investigate the claims.

Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical, the report reads. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, ‘independent’ validation of the Bush administration’s false statements about Iraq.

The quotes in the study include an August 26, 2002, statement by Cheney to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction, Cheney said. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.
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Border wall breached, 50,000 flee Gaza for Egypt

RAFAH, Gaza (CNN) — At least 50,000 people poured from Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday to buy food and fuel after Palestinians blew holes in the border wall, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

The exodus came after Israel closed all its Gaza border crossings Friday to punish Gaza’s Hamas leadership following days of rocket attacks on southern Israel.

Egyptian guards did not intervene as wave after wave of men — cheered on by children chanting God is great — washed over fences along the border and into Egypt. They left on foot, in cars and atop donkey carts.

Israel’s border closings have left Hamas-controlled Gaza cut off from food, fuel and other necessities. Aid agencies warned of the impending humanitarian crisis. Watch more from the scene

Israel’s Foreign Ministry told CNN that an open border posed a security risk for the country.

When the exit [from Gaza] is open, so is the entrance, ministry spokesman Aryeh Mekel said. Hamas and other terrorist groups may use this opportunity to smuggle weapons and terrorists into Gaza.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he had ordered his troops to allow Palestinians to cross into Egypt because they were starving, according to Egypt’s state-run news agency MENA.

I told them to let them come in and eat and buy food and then return them later as long as they were not carrying weapons, Mubarak told The Associated Press.

The outpouring into Egypt began about 2 a.m. Wednesday, when residents reported hearing explosions near the border. Authorities said militants set off several explosions.

At least six spots on the border wall had been blown apart. In another stretch, a steel coil wall had been sheared off.

By daybreak, lines of people waited restlessly as a frontloader tore chunks of concrete from a border wall. Hundreds of cars streamed toward Rafah — on the Egyptian border — unloading occupants who then jumped over.

Others returned, carrying bags of food and cans of fuel. Two men tottered under the weight of mattresses they balanced on their backs. A small boy, dragging a sack, tried to keep up.

John Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency in Gaza, called the exodus the desperate acts of a desperate people.

Everything that is needed for the sustainment of life here is in short supply or has run out, Ging said.

We’ve run out of terms ourselves to describe how miserable and desperate the situation [is]. But what is now happening today is yet another manifestation of that reality, in terms of people’s determination to break free from this shackle that they’re under at the moment.

Border access between Gaza and Egypt has been greatly restricted since 2007, when the militant group Hamas took over the territory.

On Tuesday, Israel allowed fuel and medical supplies into Gaza, easing the blockade somewhat.

But frustrations over the situation erupted in a clash between Palestinian demonstrators and Egyptian security forces at the Gaza-Egypt border. Dozens of people were injured, Palestinian medical sources said.

It is the first time since June when people have been able to come and go as they please across the border. There are no border controls whatsoever, no passport control.

Palestinian authorities carried out spot searches of goods carried by Palestinians, arresting two people for possessing large quantities of hashish.

Some Palestinians left Gaza with no plans to return. One man said he hoped to get his son all the way to Cairo and on a plane for Morocco, where he has enrolled in a university but has been unable to leave the territory.

Also Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israel to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza by finding different ways to punish Hamas.

Rice spoke to reporters aboard her plane en route to Germany, where she will meet with her counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China to discuss a new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

We have spoken to the Israelis about the importance of not allowing humanitarian crisis to unfold there, Rice said. They’ve said that they do not want a humanitarian crisis and that they understand the need to permit fuel and electricity in Gaza, so we will see.

Rice was responding to a question about a call she received from Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit. He asked Rice to put pressure on Israel about the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Rice blamed Gaza’s Hamas leadership for its defiance of the international community. Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization which Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organization.

Rice said Israel was trying to respond to rockets from Gaza into Israel and the terror and anxiety that those attacks are placing on the Israeli population.

Israel’s Ministry of Defense said it will consider whether to allow further shipments after Tuesday’s delivery.

Rice said the Mideast Quartet — composed of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia — is examining a plan by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad for the Palestinian Authority to take a greater role in monitoring border crossings between Gaza and Israel.

Gaza receives about 70 percent of its electricity from Israel, and the bulk of the remaining power comes from a generation plant in Gaza. That plant relies on fuel supplied by an Israeli company.
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Suharto battles fresh infection

JAKARTA (CNN) — Former Indonesian President Suharto’s condition has worsened, with a new infection coursing through his body, doctors said Wednesday.

His blood pressure is stable, doctors said Wednesday, but an infection has become worse and his lungs were not functioning as well as they had been in recent days.

Doctors are trying to stabilize him in a bid to remove him from life-support machines.

Suharto has also developed digestive trouble and severe pneumonia, Dr. Joko Raharjo, a member of the presidential medical team, told the Associated Press.

We are trying hard to find and detect the bacteria and treat him with proper antibiotics, but we cannot guarantee it will be successful, he was quoted as saying. We are not happy with his condition today.

Suharto entered the hospital January 4 for treatment of a a failing liver, heart and lungs.

Suharto was president of Indonesia from 1967 until his resignation in 1998 under immense political pressure. His family is accused of amassing billion of dollars in state funds during his reign.
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