BOISE, Idaho – The judge presiding over the University of Idaho murder case wants attorneys and investigators on both sides to turn over information that may lead him to discover who leaked information that aired in an NBC Dateline special last week.
Judge Steven Hippler issued two orders Thursday relating to the non-dissemination order that has been in place since Bryan Kohberger’s arrest.
Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 22. His trial is scheduled to begin in August.
Friday, NBC’s Dateline focused an hour on the case, reporting information that had not yet been shared publicly.
That information included the fact Kohberger called his father the morning after the murders and that he searched for information about prominent serial killers and certain types of pornography.
It also included details of the crime scene that haven’t yet been shared.
Now, Judge Hippler wants someone to answer for that and said he’s considering appointing a special prosecutor to look into it.
“Such violations not only undermine the rule of law, potentially by persons charged with upholding it, but also significantly impede the ability to seat an impartial jury and will likely substantially increase the cost to try this case by extending the time it will take to seat jury and potentially requiring lengthy period of juror sequestration,” Hippler wrote in two court orders filed Thursday.
Thursday afternoon, even as a pre-trial hearing in the case was ongoing, Hippler issued two orders, one for the defense and one for the state.
He’s giving attorneys two weeks to submit to the court “a list of all individuals within law enforcement and prosecuting agencies, past or present, who are known to have had access to any facts related to the investigation of the Defendant, including but not limited to surveillance videos of ‘Suspect Vehicle One,’ the AT&T records for Defendant’s cellphone, and the content of Defendant’s cellphone and other electronic devices and social media accounts, including internet search history, photographs and information associated with Defendant’s Amazon account, or any information referenced in the above-mentioned ‘Dateline’ episode regarding this case.”
Attorneys must also submit to the court a written plan to address and prevent the disclosure of unauthorized disclosure of information in the case.
Hippler also made clear that anyone involved in the investigation is prohibited from deleting emails, texts, phone logs or other communication that could show they were sharing information with the media or someone from outside of the case.
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