bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632
HILLSBOROUGH — A judge has ruled that prosecutors in the state case against Demario Atwater and Laurence Lovette Jr., who are charged with killing UNC Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson, do not have to disclose the identity of any tipster who called CrimeStoppers with information about the case.
Orange-Chatham Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour released his decision Thursday. In the very detailed decision, Baddour ruled there is some CrimeStoppers tip information that should be turned over to Atwater’s and Lovette’s defense attorneys, but that included only certain types of tips and did not include any that would reveal the identity of the tipster.
The order is very consistent with what I anticipated it would be,” said Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall. “I’m very comfortable with the order.”
Orange-Chatham Public Defender James Williams could not be reached for comment Thursday.
In making his decision, Baddour read through all the tips and categorized them according to the type of tip and whether the tipster’s identity was revealed in them, either deliberately or inadvertently through the information the tipster gave.
After Carson was killed on March 5, 2008, the Chapel Hill Police Department released two photographs of men using Carson’s ATM card to withdraw money from her account, and they asked people to call CrimeStoppers if they had information about the identify of the men or about Carson’s murder.
Many called in, with all sorts of tips.
Documents indicate police charged Atwater and Lovette after investigating one or more of the CrimeStoppers tips, and they later began working with one or more of the tipsters to obtain more information.
Baddour went through all the tips, put them into categories and then ruled whether each category of tips should be turned over to the defense.
Prior to Baddour’s hearing, Woodall allowed the defense attorneys to look through the tips, but they were not allowed to take notes except to write down the page numbers of the tips they most wanted to receive.
Baddour categorized those tips and in some cases ruled they should be turned over and in other cases not.
The defense attorneys also asked for information that law enforcement officers received from Gang.net, a database of information officers use to help identify gang members. Baddour ruled that the material was not discoverable because it was not part of the file as defined by state statute.
Woodall complimented Baddour’s rulings.
“It was as well thought out and as thorough as I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I think he has protected the CrimeStopper program, has protected people’s identities, but at the same time, he felt there should be material that should be turned over to the defense, and I am very comfortable with that.”
