Beth Shelburne

Reward information in the DA's office, according to this source, was kept in a separate, confidential file, away from prosecutors involved in trials, like Jeff Wallace.

This meant he couldn't turn it over to Taforis lawyers because he didn't know about it.

To Taforis attorneys, this meant the information about the reward was kept from them, intentionally suppressed.

the judge orders the DA's office to turn over this separate confidential file.

Here they are.

After 17 years, the state finally turned over every document Taforis' lawyers had asked for.

The hidden treasure trove.

an application for the reward that's signed by Violet Ellison, a copy of the actual check for $5,000 made out to Violet Ellison, an email exchange between District Attorney David Barber and the governor's office about how to pay the reward, and a letter from D.A.

Barber asking the governor to pay Violet Ellison the money, saying that she came forward pursuant to the offer of a reward.

If this hidden information about the reward, kept away from Taforis' lawyers for 17 years, doesn't count as prosecutorial misconduct, as a Brady violation, what does?

But according to the state, all of these documents were simply misfiled.

When I hear misfiled, I imagine someone accidentally putting a document into the wrong folder or maybe a paper falling behind a cabinet.

But that's not what happened.

It sounds like they had it organized in a file they kept explicitly for rewards, a file that no one seemed to know about except the office manager and the DA himself, David Barber, who headed the prosecutor's office.

How is this acceptable?

Yes, I was calling for David Barber.

Speaking.

Mr. Barber, my name is Beth Shelburne.

I called David Barber, who's now retired after serving as Jefferson County's top prosecutor for 24 years.

He was DA when DeForest was tried for capital murder.