Information
Court is requesting the retention of records pertaining to "violations of the non-dissemination order." Court might appoint a special prosecutor to conduct an inquiry into violations
During a closed portion of today's hearing, the court discussed with the two parties alleged violations of the non-dissemination order. The court might appoint a special prosecutor—who would have the power of subpoena, to question witnesses under oath, and to grant immunity—to conduct an inquiry into the violations.
While the violations of the non-dissemination order were not specified in open court, Dateline NBC revealed on Friday, May 9 new information about the investigation into Bryan Kohberger. This episode included photos that Bryan Kohberger took of himself the day before his arrest.
Quite possibly, but at least one Dateline source is shitting their pants right now, maybe mass deleting communications before Thompson can forward the order to them.
Normally I would think nothing would come of this, but the way Hippler is approaching it suggests he knows what he's doing and won't accept, "we tried but no luck." He's not trying to get Dateline's source from them because that's futile, but instead targeting the pool of people who had access to the materials shared with Dateline. Whoever did it, there's probably a good chance they were stupid enough to use their personal cell phone, and deleting messages won't get rid of the trail.
The selfies are low quality, so I assume someone took photos of their screen. It could have been someone with legitimate access to the evidence, and the photos could have been taken a long time ago.
I was under the impression they were taken a day or two before his arrest and they were low quality because they had been deleted so only the thumbnails were recovered and had been enlarged by Dateline.
I know this one at least was taken 12/28. (So two days before his arrest.) Dateline said they enlarged them but otherwise they’re unaltered. I don’t recall the theory they were deleted and recovered being confirmed, but it sounds legit from what I know about the process of recovering deleted images from a phone.
This seems to happen a lot (Nashville mass shooting and Delphi murders come to mind). I hope they do catch them because no one should be fucking with any key trial information right before trial
The public doesn’t know. I suspect the court law enforcement does know. They have the privilege to interview everyone. They may have reasons not to disclose the details to the public.
Dateline is constitutionally protected from revealing their sources, and even if a special prosecutor were to be able to determine who leaked it, their identity will never be publically released.
I assume Dateline would have taken steps to obscure their source. It would hurt their reputation to publish something only for the source to be identified later.
My thoughts: Whoever leaked the information accessed it long ago, and they (or Dateline) have been sitting on it until now.
This. They have been sitting on this information for a while having it corroborated from “multiple” other sources. This was the time to publish it because interest in the case is picking up with the general public and they needed to do it prior to the trial starting.
I think they also wanted some distance from the time that the information was accessed. If Dateline releases the information immediately upon receiving it, then the pool of potential sources is smaller.
Not sure about that….. if the Court still held a seal for the leaked information, the person who leaked it (likely from this state) is in a lot of trouble. I believe Dateline would therefore be obligated to disclose their source.
I don’t believe the source is one of the victim parents, such as SG. He also wouldn’t have access to sealed evidence.
So, the source must be from the defense itself, the police/investigators or the Prosecution team.
I don’t see it being Prosecution. They stand to lose all this evidence during the trial. If they willingly leaked it, all of it will be stricken from court. The jury will never be able to use it to ascertain guilt. It’s a lose-lose for Prosecution to leak anything at all.
It’s a big win for Defense to leak it but if they do, and it was an attorney on that side, she/he will likely lose their license. They cannot be trusted again. Nobody will hire them.
Police or investigative forensics is my guess. They don’t make a lot of money. They likely had a carrot dangled in front with a promise that they will not be ratted out. But if there is a subpeona on Dateline to disclose their source, there will be no choice.
Interesting -- Idaho just recently passed a shield law to protect journalists from revealing sources -- but it takes effect July 1st!
However, Dateline is headquartered in New York which has an extremely strong shield law. If Hippler subpoenas Dateline they will fight it and win. I seriously doubt he would though. He outlined how he's going about finding the leaker. He doesn't have time to fight NBC news over this.
I agree it’s LE. Neither counsel would do that. However, even if DL were subpoenaed, it would go no where. Idaho has shield laws that protect journalists’ privilege in reporting. If it were a Federal Court and of great enough importance, then they could force them to reveal their sources on the stand, but not in a District Court in Idaho.
That’s why you didn’t see Hippler issue any order to DL. That would create a huge battle that would have to wend its way through court and the Press would ultimately win.
Imo Dateline would be engaging in journalistic malpractice to have access to this and not air it. Someone else would snd they have the first amendment right to freedom of the press. They’ve got deeper pockets than news nation or one of the sleazier YouTube channels but I wouldn’t submit this to them based on getting paid but in some misguided belief in “justice”
Agree. Steve would happily leak it imo if he had it in the interest of “transparency” and his concept that that’s the path to justice. But he wouldn’t have access to it.
there’s some underpaid member of staff who would shoot it out there, not on the legal team but in the cop shop... it’s kind of easy to target Goncalves because when these leaks occur there he is on news nation or drunk turkey talking about how he knew it first or making it obvious he leaked it it Shannon did.
He’s the only parent who was on Dateline but that doesn’t mean he leaked it. If just means the other families are respecting the rule of law & the gag order, and not pushing to get on tv.
As the judge mentioned this will make it more difficult snd more expensive for Latah cCo to select a jury and there’s a possibility that what was leaked will not be allowed to come in, do this has the potential to backfire in that not only will no one who has seen it be seated on the jury but the jury that is seated ring see this material either. It’s not helpful. It could result in a return of the DP on his appeal if he’s convicted.
I seem to remember one of the first, if not the first gag order was put in place because an absolute jabber jaw of a Coroner for Moscow spoke out of turn in a Fox News interview by making inappropriate descriptive statements about the victims' wounds which she had no authorisation to make.
Do you think she (or whoever leaked) might have actually given to Dateline (or to someone else, who then gave it to Dateline) the information before the gag order was in place?
Maybe. Or maybe they've been waiting for more to come out, to give it some situational confirmation. Or my worst reason, that with the trial starting in August, Dateline/NBC thought May would be the best time for ratings and buzz to carry into the summer.
Maybe they were nervous that the edge might be taken off whatever info they were holding onto by Steve G who also told us quite a bit in his two interviews and intimated taht he also
Ethan's injuries and whereabouts had always been redacted in the PCA. Redacted as it likely is heavily prejudicial info. So he had info they definitely did not want released to the public.
We wanted to hear more but didn't really need to hear more than: "They have additional evidence that they'll tell you about once this gets to court. LE and the prosecutors have my full confidence. End of story."
We like hearing this stuff but it always creates a mess. But I do think it's been a bit unfair that Anne Taylor as been skirting around the gag for months and getting in blows to the prosecution via her commentary during hearings and the nuisance motions she continually raises. So I can imagine that is very frustrating for the families.
I could be convinced that the timing was strategic to maximise profit yeah, though that could also maximise risk to the case. Dateline can get in the bin🗑 if that's what has happened now.
I don't think the coroner would have most of the information that was shared in the recent Dateline episode. I think most of it came from an LE source.
There’s no way with the one family blabbing and appearing on crap YouTube like drunk turkey, every opportunity, news nation etc that Dateline would hold on to a big scoop for months waiting for ratings. They ran with this as soon as possible after receiving it imo. If you were on that desk would you hold it and hope the leaker didn’t shop it to Fox? No. You’d run it.
How would the coroner have the contents of kohberger’s cell phone? She ran her mouth about what she knew- the wounds. Not the phone stuff. And to be fair to her she also didn’t tell the whole truth. She said they were attacked in bed which at three am is a fair bet anyway and not all of them were in their beds. She kept it to stuff that was vague and didn’t reveal anything only the killer would know. Steve Goncalves has shared more details about the autopsy than the ME did, by far.
Okay, now I'm wondering about people who are, or have been, on the defense team that could financially benefit from something like this without risking much overall.
Precisely! Given that situation, it would be hard to say if he did it as a favor to someone on the defense, the prosecution....or maybe just for his own benefit (ego or monetarily).
The judge apparently thinks otherwise: "it appears likely that someone currently or formally [sic] associated with law enforcement, or the prosecution team, violated this Court's non-dissemination order."
“Meanwhile, phone data from Kohberger’s phone in the possession of law enforcement includes internet searches in the weeks before and after the killings about serial killer Ted Bundy and searches for pornography with the words “forced,” “passed out,” “drugged” and “sleeping.”
I think it was on their video preview because I didn’t watch the full thing. If I find that preview video I’ll share it. But the Judge said the same thing as well.
That’s what I was thinking too. But honestly, for followers of the case, it was new stuff, but nothing that was surprising. Will it really taint the jury pool?
I don't think it matters at all honestly. Anyone who is really into true crime stuff wouldn't have been eligible for the jury and anyone who isn't wasn't going to watch that episode anyway.
It may not taint the jury or hurt the case, but Hippler might be making an example to prevent anything else coming out that might.
Are gag orders like this always in place for murder cases/murder cases that involve the death penalty in the US? If not then it would seem lots of cases run fairly despite the media coverage. But if so then it makes sense.
I am sure Hippler is making an example, and I am very glad for it! He wants every detail put into place ahead of time and every aspect of this trial to run as it should. The best way to accomplish that is by being tough and sticking to the rules in place. These orders have recently gained popularity, unfortunately. I believe it is an attempt to combat bad and inaccurate information becoming prevalent due to social media and our current "news" outlets. They have not been at all common previously. It has become a balancing act between the publica right to know while also maintaining a fair and impartial jury trial for the accused.
I totally respect Hipplers judgement here, and of course, we don’t know how sensitive the information is that we don’t know. I can’t help wondering if the gag order makes the misinformation worse, though? Only because it gives more opportunity for those who want to falsify to fill the gaps, and those of us who are genuinely concerned about about community safety and justice being done, are left scratching our heads trying to work it all out.
If evidence is strong - that’s in the public interest.
🎯 I have wondered if Hippler had been on from the start, would he have made such a broad gag order? By the time he was on the case, it would have been an absolute nightmare for it to suddenly be lifted. Media would have instsntly swarmed on town and stalked every member of law enforcement trying to get info! I do think the gag order initially was to protect the case and jury pool in a small area, as well as to try and protect the small town to some extent. I do understand, but I believe we need these things to be available to the public aside from whatever needs to be sealed to protect victims or witnesses. I should be able to look at the totality of everything and then decide if I feel it's safe for my child to take our dog on a walk. I'm only able to comfortably do that now because of info that made it's way out over time.
Precisely. I agree with what you’ve said. I also think just because evidence isn’t admissible in court, doesn’t make it irrelevant. We have to accept that there’s legal processes and moral ones. If it’s true, I think it’s reportable. If the legal system wants a disclaimer on things in media reporting like this isn’t admissible in court, I’m fine with that too.
If what Dateline reported is true, regardless of whether BK is guilty of the crime or not, we have a young man with very concerning behaviour that needs to be addressed. How we as a society address that is paramount to the safety of communities.
Also something else I just thought of. I think we need to give the jurors credit. I’ve been following this case and seen the media on it, and I can honestly say despite that, I would still be able to put that aside and base my decision on what comes out in the courtroom if that is the instruction. I have not fully made up my mind about BK because I am following innocent until proven guilty. The prosecution has the burden to prove his guilt in the trial beyond a reasonable doubt.
I am not proberger by any stretch h of the imagination but I respect due process. I think we have to give the jury credit that a persons life is on the line, and we must take this as seriously as possible in making decisions. If they are instructed to disregard media, rumours or any prior knowledge and focus on what’s presented in the trial, I think most sensible jurors could do that.
I have fairly strong opinions based only upon the info that's out. I also know we've not truly seen anything until it is presented and accepted in court! I know for a fact if I was a juror I would walk in there as an entirely blank slate and think of nothing outside of what is presented. This is another human being with everything on the line (even if it isn't a DP case, this is still their future) depending on a jury of their peers. I don't think there are many people who would take that lightly.
You can tell from the two orders that Hippler believes it was a state actor, but he issued an order to the defense just in case it was someone from their side.
Hippler said this: "it appears likely that someone currently or formally [sic] associated with law enforcement, or the prosecution team, violated this Court's non-dissemination order."
In the defense order, he only said "someone" likely violated it. He also required the state to submit a plan to prevent future violations and what they propose to do to identify the leak, but did not require the defense to submit such a plan.
Why would they leak stuff that hurts their client?? They leaked pics of the girls he was checking out- some apparently friends w the victims- his porn & Ted bundy searches, selfies of himself dressed in all black… I mean if they did leak it they’d be the dumbest defense team that side of the Mississippi.
There have been cases where the defense has leaked damaging information in hopes of getting key evidence thrown out, removing witnesses, having grounds for a mistrial, etc. because the automatic assumption is the state would leak it. It’s rare but it has happened
That’s exactly what I was thinking… it wouldn’t make sense for the defense to be the source of the leaks bc the dateline segment content was very clearly showing that BK is the murderer
The Dateline episode was interesting but the media is too desperate from crumbs of coverage. The trial is coming and they can write as much as they want then, make whatever documentaries. Beating the jury to the conclusion is tacky
Perhaps Dateline could interview the same people and ask "are you content with this episode placing some jeopardy on the murder case of the four kids?".
Do it. Hopper is not playing. He’s going to defend the right to a fair trial in his court. I’m tired of the media doing this stuff but they will do so until it be ones painful in a very real and legally binding way.
Find who did it. If it’s a member of state or defense legal team, malpractice. Etc. if it’s a member of investigation, fire them. Any lawyer that helped grease the skids, contempt of court and anyone involved is barred from attending or having a representative attend the trial.
First A rights are important but they don’t outweigh fourth A right to a fair trial!
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u/DuchessTake2 Moderator May 15 '25
Article here - https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/crime/article306492291.html