Lin Wood's Dog and Pony show

Discussion in 'Justice for JonBenet Discussion - Public Forum' started by Tricia, Dec 26, 2002.

  1. Tricia

    Tricia Administrator Staff Member

    Lin Wood's Dog and Pony show #5,256,721 and 1/2

    Before anyone has another psychotic meltdown thinking I stole this from them please know I recieved this a couple of days ago through the proper channels. Been meaning to post it. Sorry so late.

    Lin Wood Transcript from the Today Show on Monday.

    SHOW: Today

    DATE: December 23, 2002



    KATIE COURIC, co-host:

    But first, the JonBenet Ramsey case is back in the headlines this morning. The Boulder Police Department announced Friday that it has agreed to turn the nearly six-year-old murder investigation over to the Boulder District Attorney's office. Lin Wood is the attorney for JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey.

    Lin Wood, good morning.

    Mr. LIN WOOD (Attorney for John and Patsy Ramsey): Good morning, Katie. How are you?

    COURIC: For--fine, thank you. For people, Lin, who have not been following every twist and turn of this investigation, can you briefly tell us why, in your view, this is such an important development?

    Mr. WOOD: It's a dramatic development, Katie. And it's important because for the first time since the death of JonBenet Ramsey, literally almost six years ago, we're going to have an unbiased investigation, an investigation that is going to move beyond John and Patsy Ramsey as potential suspects, an investigation that's going to pursue the evidence, and an investigation, I believe, that's going to go back and look at all the potential suspects and investigate them with the same level of thoroughness that the Boulder Police Department has investigated the Ramseys over the past six years. The days of--of John and Patsy Ramsey as the focus of this investigation are over...

    COURIC: In fact...

    Mr. WOOD: ...and that is a dramatic development.

    COURIC: ...you wrote a letter to Boulder DA Mary Keenan back in October asking the investigation be transferred from the police department to the sheriff's office, and now DA investigators are taking over. Do you think that precipitated this change of heart?

    Mr. WOOD: Well, I think the timing of the decision on Friday may have been affected by my letter. I did write Mary Keenan. I've been trying for over three and a half years as the attorney for John and Patsy Ramsey to get this case out of the hands of the Boulder Police Department and into the hands of
    legitimate, objective and experienced homicide investigators. I'm--I'm thrilled that Mary Keenan's office is going to staff the investigators to look at this case, not only because they'll bring that level of experience and fairness to the case, but she's going to draw on the experience and the wisdom and the knowledge of this case of Lou Smith, who's an experienced homicide
    detective. You met with Lou. You interviewed him over the course of a week, I believe, on this show. And--and you know how Lou feels about this case. Now we're going to have his involvement again, and I think that bodes very well for
    finding the killer of this child.

    COURIC: The Boulder Police Department released a statement on Friday about this. Boulder Police Chief Mark Becter--Beckner says, quote, "The primary reason for this change is an attempt to further the investigation in a positive manner." He goes on to say, "It is our hope that by changing the dynamics of
    the investigation, information maintained by the Ramseys will be forwarded to the DA's office for follow up. Obviously, it's impossible to investigate information you do not have access to." If you read between the lines, Lin, it sounds as if Mr. Beckner, or Chief Beckner, was frustrated by the--the amount of information he was getting from the Ramseys. Will they make--will they be
    more forthcoming now that the DA's office is taking over the investigation? Would they be willing to submit to another polygraph, for example? And will they be available for extensive interviews?

    Mr. WOOD: OK, you got about six questions there, let me see if I can hit both--all of them at one--one time. The Ramseys will cooperate with Mary Keenan. They will give her 100 percent unconditional cooperation because they trust her and they know that she will be fair. They've never had that ability
    in the past dealing with the Boulder Police Department because that police department has never treated them fairly. It's been a corrupt and a biased investigation from day one with the Boulder Police Department. Chief Beckner, I'm sure, put his spin on this development in his press release. But--but, Katie, the fact is Chief Beckner didn't ask for this investigation to be taken
    away from him, the Ramseys asked for it to be taken away from the Boulder Police Department. We offered information to Chief Beckner. If you look at the letter that I sent to Mary Keenan in October, I had written Chief Beckner in September offering information. I never heard back from him. And so that's
    what prompted my letter to Mary Keenan when I said, `It's obvious this police department is not going to aggressively investigate other...

    COURIC: Mm-hmm.

    Mr. WOOD: ...leads and other information, and someone's got to do it if we're going to find the killer of this child. Mary Keenan looked at this case, she's looked at it for two years, and she agreed with me. It's time for a new investigation, time...

    COURIC: OK.

    Mr. WOOD: ...to look beyond the Ramseys to find the killer.

    COURIC: We only have a few seconds left.

    Mr. WOOD: I don't know if I got all six of the questions answered.

    COURIC: Are you going--I know. Are--are you going to give--I know you have some information about pertinent leads that may be helpful to DA's--investigators from the DA's office. Can you shed any light on that for us this morning?

    Mr. WOOD: Well, I don't want to go into specifics. I think it's important to realize that there are a vast number of leads and a large number of potential suspects that have never been thoroughly investigated. Mary Keenan has noted
    that John and Patsy Ramsey, on the other hand, have been exhaustedly and thoroughly investigated. They're going to look at the new information, information that has existed that hasn't been investigated, as well as new information that I will try to provide, that Lou Smith will try to provide, hopefully members of the public will provide, because now we've got an investigation that is going to legitimately follow the evidence. No
    pre-conceived ideas of who did it, all the evidence, and find the killer.

    COURIC: And in closing, how have Ramseys reacted to this latest development?

    Mr. WOOD: I--I don't think the Ramseys could have come up with a better Christmas present. It's going to help ease a lot of their--their pain that they suffer during this time of the year. They have great hope now that Mary Keenan's investigation is going to eventually find the killer of their child.

    COURIC: Lin Wood, thank you very much for your time this morning.

    Mr. WOOD: Thank you, Katie. Merry Christmas.

    COURIC: Merry Christmas to you as well.


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    So did you notice Lin Wood never answered whether the Ramsey's would take a polygraph or come in for more interviews?

    Couric:"Would they be willing to submit to another polygraph, for example? And will they be available for extensive interviews?"

    Wood: "The Ramseys will cooperate with Mary Keenan. They will give her 100 percent unconditional cooperation because they trust her and they know that she will be fair. They've never had that ability in the past dealing with the Boulder Police Department because that police department has never treated them fairly. "

    and blah blah blah...Doing The Little Wood Tap Dance here.

    How about this answer Linny:

    "HELL YES THEY WILL TAKE A POLYGRAPH AND ANSWER QUESTIONS"...

    They won't. The Ramsey's won't do crap.

    I don't understand why more talking heads are not outraged by what is happening here. Is this how we want our investigations run? By having the threat of a lawsuit lead to a civil attorney being able to make a D.A.'s office perform like a trained circus pony? I think not.

    I am just numb with disbelief.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 26, 2002
  2. Thor

    Thor Active Member

    Tricia, I hate to be picky, but your title here is incorrect. It should have read Lin Wood's Dog & Pony Show #5,256,721 and 1/2. You left the number out. Thank you for letting me correct you. hehe
     
  3. Tricia

    Tricia Administrator Staff Member

    OMG Thor how could I be so careless. I shall correct it right now.
     
  4. Thor

    Thor Active Member

    Ha, I couldn't resist. Maybe I'll stick around after all, ya gotta find some humor in this case sometimes. I hope you're reading Limpy cause you have a big fan in Thor. Not.
     
  5. Freebird

    Freebird Active Member

    Tricia..........well I'm outraged also.

    Firstly that the lawyer (any lawyer) of the suspects would have the power to pull the strings of the DA in the case of his client..... right down to who he wants to aid in investigating,......<B> the dick who has been licking the boots of the umbrella people for the last 6 years</B>.......a dick who has come out on national TV and claimed he knows the Ramseys are innocent..... He has alot riding on an intruder being 'found' and prosecuted. He's looking to pin this on someone and this is what passes as an impartial investigation !?! Geez wheres Mark Furman when you need him.

    All I can say is I just don't understand Boulder...down here we'd throw a DA out on his arse once he/she started working for the suspects lawyer and NOT the citizens who voted them in office. Their job is to prosecute criminals not appease the attorneys of suspects. But as long as incompetence in the DA office is acceptable to the people , incompetence is what they'll get.
     
  6. LurkerXIV

    LurkerXIV Moderator

    Tricia....

    It's a chess game, and Little Linny is just a pawn.

    Ellis Armistead is holding some major cards close to his vest. As you know, he split from the Rams when Wood came on board.

    Ellis has a lot of case knowledge that hasn't been revealed yet, since the Rammers are trying to hold him to a lawyer (Haddon hired Ellis)-client privilege, which may or may not apply.

    There are others who were hired to "keep John Ramsey out of jail" besides Armistead. They are willing to talk to a new Grand Jury, if the privilege can be lifted.

    Fasten your seatbelts (Hi, BOB!) for the ride ahead. It's going to be an interesting one.
     
  7. LurkerXIV

    LurkerXIV Moderator

    Lin Wood vs. Ellis Armistead

    by Andrew Cohen, Dec. 21, 2001

    Briefly...

    ... When I first read the letter to the editor in Wednesday's Rocky Mountain News written by Ramsey attorney L. Lin Wood, my initial thought was: Now here's a typical belligerent, aggressive, bullying response-- replete with all the pre-litigation buzzwords like "false" and "malicious" and "defamatory attack"-- by a litigation attorney to something in the Rocky that the attorney didn't like to read.

    My second thought was to find out whether Wood might have anything resembling an actionable case against the paper or H. Ellis Armistead for words attributed to him in the Rocky's Dec. 18 story (part of the All-Ramsey, All-the-Time feature I criticized earlier this week) on the JonBenet murder mystery investigation.

    So I asked a couple of local libel law experts I know to read Wood's letter and offer a preliminary opinion on what his options might be. Thankfully, they responded. Their conclusion: Wood almost certainly would be considered a "public figure" under Colorado law and thus "would have to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that both Armistead and the Rocky either knew the allegation was false, or made the allegation with serious doubts as to its truth."

    My libel law friends (by the way, notice how libel law lawyers are smart enough not to identify themselves in pieces like this) also told me it would be hard in any event to consider the words to be defamatory in the first place and the Rocky, they noted, also has the option of employing the doctrine of "neutral reportage" which, in their words, "provides a privilege for news media to accurately publish defamatory allegations leveled by a participant in an ongoing controversy against another participant in that controversy."

    So, there. Meanwhile, I called Wood, ever the media-savvy attorney, to find out whether he intends to take legal action against either the paper or the investigator, but he didn't return my call...
     
  8. AK

    AK Member

    Ooh, that's good

    ...Lurker!

    Yeah, Little Linny, in the interest of full disclosure for your clients...

    Lift the veil of privilege and let Mr. Armistead speak to the media!!

    Because of you don't, who could blame Mr. A from going to the media who will know how to use his info and keep his secrecy?

    Mmmm, what a fertile area that is.
     
  9. BobC

    BobC Poster of the EON - Fabulous Inimitable Transcript

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice