1999 Flashback

Discussion in 'Justice for JonBenet Discussion - Public Forum' started by Spade, Apr 11, 2004.

  1. Spade

    Spade Member

    In 19 days Tricia will present a petition to Governor Owens calling for the appointment of a Special Prosecuter. So this is a good time to flashback to 1999 when the Governor 1st spoke out on this tragedy.


    Office of the Governor - Press Office

    FOR RELEASE:
    Wednesday, October 27, 1999 CONTACT:
    Governor's Press Office
    303/866-6312
    Statement by Governor Bill Owens on the JonBenet Ramsey Murder Case October 27, 1999
    For the past 34 months, the killers of JonBenet Ramsey have escaped justice. Earlier this month, a Boulder grand jury looking into the case dissolved as District Attorney Alex Hunter announced he would not seek any indictments at this time. Mr. Hunter also stressed that the Ramsey investigation would continue. Against this backdrop, I have faced a very difficult decision as Governor: Whether I should appoint a special prosecutor to take over the Ramsey case.
    This is not a decision I take lightly. Law enforcement is chiefly a local governmental function in our State. Only rarely does a Governor take away a criminal case from a District Attorney. Yet there is precedent for a Governor to appoint a special prosecutor who goes on to win a conviction, as Governor Roy Romer did a dozen years ago in a child abuse case.
    In other instances - including the 1981 case of serial murderer Angelo Buono, the "Hillside Strangler" of Los Angeles - special prosecutors have gained convictions where District Attorneys have previously refused to file charges. Given the unique facts and history of the JonBenet Ramsey case, many Coloradans - and indeed, many citizens from across America - have urged me to intervene in this case.
    To help me weigh these competing considerations, I asked a team of seven legal experts - including experienced prosecutors from both political parties, the Attorney General of Colorado, my own Chief Legal Counsel, and the former Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court - to help me review the law and the evidence in this case. My decision reflects their advice, as well as conversations I have had with many other people connected with this case.
    But let me stress that this decision is mine and mine alone. In approaching the Ramsey case, one question has guided me: Will my appointment of a special prosecutor at this stage of the investigation help bring the killers of JonBenet to justice? Or will my appointment of a special prosecutor at this stage of the case make it harder to win a conviction?
    Ladies and gentlemen, any unsolved crime of violence tears at the fabric of our society, none more so than the murder of a child. This particular case presents a special threat to the public's respect for our criminal justice system. The killers in this case made some serious mistakes, but they are also very smart. They have stonewalled effectively and covered their tracks well. And the legal burden that the prosecution must satisfy- proving guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt" - is a difficult standard to meet in this case at this time.
    Add to this the fact that from the very first day, the Ramsey tragedy has been subjected to an almost unprecedented amount of media coverage.
    In the face of this media blitz, the initial handling of the Ramsey case certainly failed to inspire public confidence. As someone who was watching the case from the outside, what I sensed back then I now know to be true: The conduct of the Ramsey investigation at that time was far from perfect. We may never know if any of those initial mistakes were serious enough to affect the outcome of this case. Yet there can be little doubt that the Ramsey case will be harder to prove in court because of the way it was handled during those early months.
    As I have said, these initial problems threatened to damage the effort to bring JonBenet's killers to justice. Fortunately, District Attorney Hunter changed course dramatically last year. He recruited three highly respected prosecutors from outside the Boulder District Attorney's Office - Michael Kane, Mitch Morrissey and Bruce Levin - to advise him on the case. This move was far more than symbolic. It reformed and, yes, redeemed the investigation. Far from mere advisors, the team of Kane, Morrissey and Levin took charge of the Ramsey case in a way that gave hope to their fellow prosecutors and police alike.
    In the months since Alex Hunter recruited them, Mike Kane, Mitch Morrissey and Bruce Levin have effectively served as "special prosecutors" in this case. Both they and District Attorney Hunter have assured me they will continue on the case.
    The grand jury phase of the investigation is of course completed. But let me emphasize that a grand jury is just one of the many tools that has been and will be used to gather evidence in this case. Under Colorado law, the prosecution may bring charges at any time - without the need for a grand jury indictment. During my own review of the Ramsey case, I have learned that substantial new evidence - including evidence that did not originate in the grand jury proceedings - is presently being analyzed and will continue to be analyzed by the prosecution team.
    I will not comment on the nature of that evidence, either now or in the future. I will say this: The right people are now working the Ramsey case, and they are working together as a team. And based on the evidence available to me, they are now targeting the right murder suspects.
    For these reasons - and with the unanimous support of my legal advisory team - I have decided not to appoint a special prosecutor at this time. Moving forward, I will continue to support the ongoing investigation. Should circumstances change, I will reassess the need for a special prosecutor at that time.
    Finally, to the killers of JonBenet Ramsey, let me say this: You only think you have gotten away with murder. There is strong evidence to suggest who you are. I believe that the investigators are moving closer to proving their case. They will keep pursuing you. And I am confident that each day brings us closer to the day when you will reap what you have sown.
    Return to Office of the Governor - Press Office.
     
  2. Spade

    Spade Member

    LinWad's response

    10/29/99

    Gov. Bill Owens "lied to the public" when he accused the couple of not cooperating with the investigation into their daughter's death, Atlanta civil attorney L. Lin Wood told The Denver Post.
     
  3. imon128

    imon128 Banned

    Perhaps the Lord foresaw how the demon who killed JB was going to be aided and abetted and that's why we're all still here...fighting evil. Soldiers of God we are, and tenacious like a lion. It must really be a burr in the perp's saddle. We're NOT going away. We're just waiting, tick, tick, tick, for the killer of JonBenet Ramsey to be exposed and help will then follow for other little children in order that JonBenet Ramsey didn't die in vain. I'm patient.

    Happy Easter, all, BTW.
     
  4. Barbara

    Barbara FFJ Senior Member

    I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth here. I want to take the time to give special thanks to Tricia and to Spade, as well as many of the other posters for all their hard work and efforts to bring justice for JBR.

    For so many of us who either do not have the time nor the means to participate more than giving opinions on the forums, please know that all your efforts are appreciated by so many.

    Special thanks to Spade for putting up with the myriad of criticisms and inappropriate remarks made about him and his personal life. May those who make the effort to bring others' down for little more than their own personal gratification have the favor returned to them twofold (at least). Sometimes that is the only way!

    Bless you!
     
  5. Spade

    Spade Member

    November 1999

    Story last updated at 1:02 p.m. on Tuesday, November 16, 1999

    Governor reacts to JonBenet's angry parents

    The Associated Press
    DENVER -- Responding to pointed remarks from the parents of slain child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, Gov. Bill Owens repeated his plea for John and Patsy Ramsey to help investigators solve the 3-year-old case.
    "As the Ramseys ramp up their public relations tour, Gov. Owens stands by his earlier remarks: Come back to Colorado and help with the investigation, no matter where that trail may lead," a statement from Owens' office said Monday.
    Owens was paraphrasing part of a strongly worded statement he made last month, when he announced he would not appoint a special prosecutor to take over the Ramsey case but criticized the Ramseys' approach to the investigation.
    Less than a week later, Owens openly questioned the couple's innocence during his radio show, saying, "If they're innocent, they're sure not acting like they are."
    The Ramseys, who remain suspects in their 6-year-old daughter's death, have announced plans to publish a book about JonBenet entitled "The Death of Innocence."
    In an interview with a Nashville, Tenn., television station, John Ramsey said he "takes offense to anybody who says (we) didn't act right" after JonBenet was found strangled and beaten Dec. 26, 1996.
    Mrs. Ramsey also lamented her family's public image.
    "We have been tried and convicted in the press every single day," she said. "We've been grieving the loss of our child every single day."
    The Ramseys, who moved to the Atlanta area after their daughter's death, agreed to the interview with WSMV-TV to promote their upcoming book, due out in March.
    The station said portions of the interview would be broadcast this week.
     
  6. Spade

    Spade Member

    2 weeks ago

    LinWad’s response to Fox News’ attempt to change venue in the latest shakedown attempt March 29, 2004:

    “The best example of the prejudicial publicity against plaintiffs was when the Governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, spoke out publicly about the case in an October 1999 press conference. Governor Owens demanded that plaintiffs “quit hiding behind their attorneys, quit hiding behind their public relations firm; come back to Colorado and work with us to find the killers in this case, no matter where that trail may lead.â€

    I hope Tricia brings this thread to the attention of Governor Owens. The taxpayers of Colorado have spent 2+ million dollars trying to find justice for a dead little girl. John and Patsy Ramsey have "spent" 100's of thousands trying to keep themselves out of prison. (I use spent loosely since they still owe 1,000's to their Colorado lawyers.)
     
  7. Watching You

    Watching You Superior Bee Admin

    Well, frankly speaking

    that was five years ago, and since then there have been a lot more Ramsey crockumentaries and the Linster himself brainwashing the public with their propaganda. I doubt very much many remember or care to remember what the governor said five years ago or that it would affect the Ramseys' ability for a fair civil trial. There is such a thing as the defendents also receiving a fair shake in all this, too, but I don't expect the narcississtic Wood or Ramseys to understand that, since everything is still about them, them, them. They want everything heavily weighted in their favor. Obviously, having to go to the state in which the defendents reside is a bit of a threat to Wood. He probably thinks he stands a better chance in the Atlanta courts.

    As far as I'm concerned, the governor of Colorado has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear on what has transpired in Boulder since he spoke those infamous, empty words. By all means, he should be strongly reminded of them.
     
  8. Ginja

    Ginja Member

    My 2 cents worth

    I agree, Spade, that Tricia should absolutely broach this topic again with the Governor (of course, that's what the petition is all about)!

    I hope the petition service also includes a copy of Ross' article of last year, not to mention a few reminders that Hunter's protege is following his trend of refusing to prosecute. Not only that, but she has surrounded herself with biased investigators who refuse to look at the evidence. The Ramseys litigiousness should also be key to recognizing the RST's fear of going back under the microscope. What do they fear if not prosecution? And who fears prosecution?

    Only the guilty!

    Owens HAS to live up to his words and face the music that this case has been held back from prosecution by the guilty, their attorney, and the BDA's office under BOTH administrations of Hunter and Keenan.

    I wish I could go to Boulder!

    But I know Tricia and I'm sure she'll make the necessary points to Owens.
     
  9. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    Ok, since I can't gimp all the way to Boulder, I will be taking some time over the next week to post some articles and materials I find to support the petition and LW's inflammatory remarks about various case players here on this thread.
     
  10. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_1734307,00.html

    DA keeps lid on Ramsey death probe

    By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

    February 10, 2003

    BOULDER - More than a month after the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation was put in the hands of the Boulder District Attorney's Office, there is little outward sign of activity in the probe.

    Last week, District Attorney Mary Keenan renewed her vow not to discuss how she is proceeding in the case in any detail.

    "We do have a team of people working on it, but I'm not going to say anything further than that," Keenan said. She added, however: "They are doing other things as well."

    The only confirmed development is the renewed involvement of retired Colorado Springs homicide detective Lou Smit, who firmly believes John and Patsy Ramsey are innocent in their 6-year-old daughter's Christmas night 1996 murder.

    "I've got to keep a real low profile," said Smit, who is not being paid by the Boulder district attorney. "Any time she wants me, I'm going to assist in any way I can," Smit said. "I know what her policy is. I just have to stay down low and help when I can and where I can."

    It's hard to ascertain who, other than Smit, is handling Ramsey investigative work for Keenan's office - or what they are doing.

    What is known is this:

    • Keenan has not asked Boulder police for help.

    • She has not asked the Boulder County Sheriff's Department for help.

    • She has not asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for help.

    • She has not asked former prosecutor Michael Kane, who directed the Ramsey grand jury probe, for help.

    • She has not asked her county commissioners for more money.

    Newly elected Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, who in November left his post as commander of detectives in the Boulder Police Department for his new county job, has heard nothing from Keenan.

    "I have not had a conversation with Mary Keenan concerning the Ramsey case, not even in passing," Pelle said. "As far as I know, they're doing it in-house."

    Lin Wood, the Ramseys' Atlanta attorney, wrote to Keenan Oct. 9 to say he was prepared to file a lawsuit on the Ramseys' behalf to get the case out of the hands of Boulder police. He charged that they had lost all objectivity in the case and had also ignored a Sept. 16 letter from him offering new leads.

    The subsequent announcement on Dec. 20 that Keenan would indeed take control of the investigation was applauded by Wood, who no longer plans to sue the Boulder police. He has faith that Keenan's efforts will be substantial.

    "Without going into specifics, there is no question in my mind that this is a legitimate investigation," Wood said. "I do know there are individuals who are working the case."

    Keenan's investigative staff consists of the same two people who were on board before her office took command of the Ramsey case - veteran investigator Linda Wickman and former Fort Wayne, Ind., police officer Joe De Angelo.

    Most people associated with the Ramsey probe are keeping their mouths shut - at Keenan's request.

    Even Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner, who agreed in December to pass the Ramsey case to Keenan's office after six years of work by his department that produced no arrests and thoroughly alienated JonBenet's parents, is following the silence-is-golden policy.

    "I'm out of the loop on that one," he said. "I wouldn't mind talking to you, but Mary has expressed some desire to not talk about anything."

    Other elected officials also are getting the cold shoulder. County Commissioner Paul Danish said he made a comment to Keenan on the Ramsey case at a recent social function.

    "She just changed the subject," Danish said.

    While no member of Keenan's staff will discuss its capacity for handling a complicated murder probe, former Assistant Boulder District Attorney Bill Wise said major homicide investigations are way outside the scope of what that office's investigators typically handle.

    "As of the time that I was last there, two years ago, we did not have investigators trained to do a homicide investigation," Wise said.

    Another veteran investigator who has worked on the Ramsey case extensively, and would speak only on the condition of anonymity, is skeptical that Keenan's investigators can accomplish much in the case without outside assistance.

    "Boulder P.D. has worked this case for six years and has accumulated thousands and thousands of interviews, investigative notes, scientific examinations and results," the investigator said. "And now, you give it to somebody brand new and expect them to even process this?"

    That investigator also questions the renewed involvement of Smit, who worked the Ramsey case under Keenan's predecessor but quit in September 1998 when it became clear that Kane's grand jury probe would focus on John and Patsy Ramsey as top suspects. That 13-month grand jury yielded no indictments.

    "If the criticism is that the Boulder P.D. has not been objective," said the veteran investigator, "then why would you hire somebody else who has shown that they are not objective, but at the other extreme?"

    But Smit maintains he is not an advocate for or against the Ramseys and is only after the truth.

    "I work strictly for JonBenet, period," Smit said.


    brennanc@RockyMountainNews .com or (303) 892-2742.
     
  11. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_1734299,00.html

    City ducks lawsuit over slaying

    By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

    February 10, 2003

    BOULDER - The decision by Boulder District Attorney Mary Keenan to take control of the JonBenet Ramsey case might not solve a crime, but it spared the city a major lawsuit.

    On Oct. 9, Atlanta attorney Lin Wood sent Keenan a letter, protesting that correspondence he mailed to Boulder police Sept. 16 offering new leads and tips on the 1996 slaying had been ignored.

    After lobbying for the investigation to be put into the hands of "competent, experienced and objective homicide investigators," Wood then put Keenan on notice about the expected Ramsey lawsuit.

    Advising Keenan that the lawsuit would prove "expensive and time- consuming," Wood wrote, "I submit that the resources of Boulder government would be better spent investigating leads and tips than litigating" over the Police Department's "misconduct" and "inaction" on the case.

    With that expected lawsuit, Wood also planned to hold Boulder police accountable for an alleged campaign of leaks aimed at defaming and discrediting John and Patsy Ramsey, long the primary focus of the Boulder police investigation.


    But on Dec. 20, after a meeting attended by Keenan, Wood and Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner, it was revealed that Keenan - with Beckner's approval - was taking the case off Beckner's hands.

    Keenan sent Wood a letter that day saying, "We will not exempt the Ramseys from this investigation," but she also told Wood she believed "the Boulder Police Department has done an exhaustive and thorough investigation of the Ramseys as potential suspects."

    Wood now says his threatened lawsuit won't be filed.

    "One of the main goals in (potentially) filing that lawsuit was to try to bring the case out of the hands of the Boulder Police Department and into the hands of an objective set of investigators," Wood said. "That goal has been accomplished."

    The attorney dismissed the possibility that Keenan's taking over the case was intended, in part, to spare the city of Boulder and its Police Department a costly and possibly embarrassing legal battle.

    However, Wood said, "I also recognize that a secondary benefit of (Keenan's decision) was to save the taxpayers of Boulder the expense of litigation over the last six years of mishandling of this case."
     
  12. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_1965510,00.html

    Leak in Ramsey case ID'd

    'Lead detective' provided magazine with info for article

    By Owen S. Good, Rocky Mountain News
    May 15, 2003

    A lead detective in the JonBenet Ramsey homicide case was the primary source for a scathing 1997 magazine article that rocked the investigation.

    Steve Thomas, who quit the Boulder Police Department in frustration in 1998, admitted in a September 2001 deposition to being an anonymous police informant for the Vanity Fair article, "Who Killed JonBenet?" by Ann Louise Bardach.

    Thomas testified in a libel suit against the Ramseys, and he has fought to keep the deposition sealed. The presiding federal judge repeatedly refused requests to seal testimony related to Thomas' contact with journalists covering the case.

    In April, a lawyer notified U.S. District Court Judge Julie Carnes that Thomas would no longer seek to seal that part of his testimony. A public version of the deposition was filed Wednesday.

    Thomas' admission is significant because the article was the first to print the notorious 2 ½-page ransom note found Dec. 26, 1996, in its entirety. Thomas denies he gave Bardach a copy of the note, saying only that "I did discuss content of the ransom note with her."

    The article, published in September 1997, savaged the Boulder District Attorney's Office as incompetent, deferential to Ramsey defense attorneys and obstructing police efforts to make an arrest. It profoundly shaped views of prosecutors' involvement that persist to this day.

    The article set off an intense and ultimately frustrated search for the source of the leak. Lie-detector tests were cancelled after the police union told management it would violate employees' contracts.

    Had Thomas been discovered, he would have been removed from the case and possibly fired, testified current Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner in a Nov. 26, 2001, deposition.

    Beckner also testified that he had known Thomas was a source for the article, but did not know how many times he had met with its author.

    Another reporter, Jeff Shapiro, then of The Globe tabloid, had extensive contact with Thomas, and recalled a conversation with him in July 1997, two months before the article appeared.

    Thomas asked Shapiro if he knew of Vanity Fair and what people thought of it. Shapiro said it was a reputable national magazine."So you think people would take an article in that magazine seriously?" Shapiro recalls Thomas asking.

    "He probably knew that the credibility of the information he was relaying depended on the credibility of the magazine," Shapiro said this week.

    Shapiro said Thomas later attempted to lead him into thinking "a lot of people talked to this woman (Bardach)."

    Shapiro believes that is false.

    "(Tom) Wickman, (Jane) Harmer (Ron) Gosage and (Thomas) Trujillo," detectives working the case, "never compromised anything," he said.

    Thomas could not be reached for comment; former Police Chief Tom Koby declined to speak; and former District Attorney Alex Hunter did not respond to calls.

    Ramsey attorney L. Lin Wood of Atlanta, finally free to comment on Thomas' involvement, denounced his conduct.

    "Steve Thomas, who would have been fired or, at a minimum, removed from the investigation, gets to continue on, actively involved in the case, clearly biased against the Ramseys before he is allowed to resign in a blaze of glory . . . then turns around and writes a book about the murder and uses confidential police file information for his own profit," Wood said.

    He said if Thomas had been discovered, "he would have been a disgraced rogue cop" and would never have been given a platform for his theory that Patsy Ramsey accidentally killed JonBenet and covered it up. That was the core of his book, released in 2000, for which the publisher last year settled a libel claim filed by the Ramseys.

    Wood alleged Thomas was never discovered because Boulder police sandbagged on finding leaks of information damaging to the Ramseys. Wood considers that part of a campaign that police waged in the media to sweat a confession out of the Ramseys.


    Thomas admits in his deposition that such a strategy was used, a detail reported by NBC's Today show in October.

    Shapiro said detectives called him in after Thomas resigned in August 1998, concerned about Thomas' relationship with reporters.

    "I think their main concern was that Thomas was apparently much more driven to take investigative matters into his own hands than they had realized," Shapiro said.

    Still, as he worked on a book about the case in 1999, Thomas said he received anonymous mailings containing copies of material in the case file. He assumed they came from former colleagues in the Boulder Police department.

    Beckner, asked Thursday if that warrants an internal-affairs probe to find the source, said, "I take what Steve says with a grain of salt," meaning it's more likely Thomas made the copies himself before he quit.

    Thomas testified that the documents in question number 200 pages and that he does not know where they are now, after moving twice since his book was published.
     
  13. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_1337821,00.html

    Ex-cop talks about Ramsey settlement

    By Owen S. Good, Rocky Mountain News

    August 21, 2002

    The former Boulder police detective who settled a lawsuit brought by John and Patsy Ramsey has broken his silence on the agreement.

    Steve Thomas, whose 2000 book JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation accused the couple of killing their daughter, maintains that he "personally paid not one red cent" to the Ramseys to dispose of their libel claim.

    But he says he lost his house and his savings during the legal battle.

    "I was in no position to take on the Ramseys' wealth," Thomas said in remarks posted on his Web site, www.forstevethomas.com. Earlier the site solicited donations for a legal defense fund.

    Thomas did not return a request for comment left with a spokeswoman. His Web site's administrative contact confirmed that the statement was his.

    Thomas' book theorized Patsy Ramsey was responsible for the death of her daughter JonBenet and that her husband helped cover it up. Formerly a top investigator of the Dec. 26, 1996, murder, Thomas was frustrated by a case he considered compromised by big money and back-room lawyering.

    The Ramseys sued him in 2001. In March, lawyers for the Ramseys, Thomas and his publisher, St. Martin's Press, agreed to a settlement.

    Thomas, in his statement, says he did not seek the settlement and that his "absolute requirement for any resolution" was that he neither admit any wrongdoing nor "personally pay a single dollar."

    He promised to "continue to speak on the case whenever I wish," and said he stands by his book.

    Ramsey attorney L. Lin Wood of Atlanta said Thomas "has not accurately characterized this settlement," although Wood also refused to specify its terms.

    "The bottom line is the Ramseys sued Steve Thomas and Steve Thomas participated in the settlement," Wood said.

    Thomas's statement is dated Aug. 6, what would have been JonBenet's 12th birthday. He also resigned in protest from the Boulder Police Department on Aug. 6, 1998.

    Wood called the timing "a disgusting, continued exploitation by this man of this child's life and death."
     
  14. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_1342847,00.html

    Ramsey evidence is explained

    Hand, boot prints determined to be innocent occurrences

    By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

    August 23, 2002

    BOULDER - Investigators have answered two vexing questions in the JonBenet Ramsey case that have long helped support the theory that an intruder killed her, according to sources close to the case.

    The answers, which have been known to investigators for some time but never publicly revealed, could be seen to weaken the intruder theory.

    The two clues are:

    • A mysterious Hi-Tec boot print in the mold on the floor of the Ramseys' wine cellar near JonBenet's body has been linked by investigators to Burke, her brother, who was 9 at the time. It is believed to have been left there under circumstances unrelated to JonBenet's murder.

    Burke, now 15, has repeatedly been cleared by authorities of any suspicion in the 1996 Christmas night slaying, and that has not changed.

    • A palm print on the door leading to that same wine cellar, long unidentified, is that of Melinda Ramsey, JonBenet's adult half-sister. She was in Georgia at the time of the murder.

    "They were certainly some things that had to be answered, one way or the other, and we feel satisfied that they are both answered," said a source close to the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    L. Lin Wood, the attorney representing the Ramseys, who now live in Atlanta, doesn't debate the palm print findings. But he contends the police have not answered the Hi-Tec print mystery.

    "Burke Ramsey does not and has never owned a pair of quote, unquote, trademarked Hi-Tec sneakers that the Ramseys are aware of," Wood said. "I would think they know what shoes he has owned."

    Wood said the two most important pieces of forensic evidence in the case are unidentified male DNA found in the girl's underwear and the bizarre 2 ½-page ransom note, whose author has never been determined.

    "I represent innocent clients," Wood said. "There has been a history since December of 1996 of anonymous law enforcement officials in Boulder, Colorado, leaking information to the media, which, in most cases, turns out to be either false or grossly distorted.

    "So I would put no weight, whatsoever, on anonymous information coming out of the Boulder Police Department. Zero."


    But the source said that connecting the palm print to Melinda Ramsey was something that occurred belatedly, only because the first time her print sample was compared with the questioned print, the person making the comparison didn't properly see the match.

    As for the footprint in the wine cellar, the source said, "We know Burke had a pair of Hi-Tec shoes."

    JonBenet, a 6-year-old star of child beauty pageants and the youngest of John and Patsy Ramsey's two children, was found murdered in the basement of her family's Boulder home Dec. 26, 1996, about seven hours after her mother reported finding a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her safe return.

    Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner refused Thursday to discuss any single piece of evidence in the beating and strangling death of JonBenet.

    But he said in the 5 ½ years since the murder, police have continued to seek solutions to "a number of evidentiary items" that represented questions in need of answers.

    "We have been able to answer questions about many of the pieces of evidence, and we hope that, over time, as we continue to go over them piece by piece, that we will be able to solve the puzzle," Beckner said.

    In their book about their daughter's murder, The Death of Innocence, the Ramseys list seven pieces of evidence they consider significant to the case - the palm print and the Hi-Tec print are numbers six and seven. In that book, John Ramsey wrote, "Next to JonBenet's body, the killer, I believe, left a clear footprint made by the sole of a Hi-Tec hiking shoe, from the area at the heel where the brand name was stamped."

    Writing about the palm print, John Ramsey concedes it might prove to belong to someone with a benign reason for being in the basement. "At the same time," he adds, "it could be an important clue."

    Meanwhile, Wood said that Patsy Ramsey is making progress in her treatment for a recurrence of cancer, diagnosed Feb. 12.

    "She completed her six-month course of chemotherapy in June, and obviously is still recovering from the side effects of that treatment," Wood said.

    "But all in all, she's doing well. I just saw her today. She looks good. She looks very strong and optimistic, and so far, everything looks good on the follow-up exams."


    brennanc@RockyMountainNews .com or (303) 892-2742.
     
  15. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_1509328,00.html

    Ramsey cops mulled coercion

    Investigators talked about using media to pressure parents

    By Owen S. Good, Rocky Mountain News

    October 29, 2002

    BOULDER - Police and the FBI discussed mounting a media campaign to pressure John and Patsy Ramsey into confessing they murdered their daughter in 1996, according to one of the case's top detectives.

    Former Boulder Detective Steve Thomas, in civil suit testimony taken last winter and aired Monday on NBC's Today show, acknowledged the strategy to Ramsey attorney L. Lin Wood.

    "There were discussions with the FBI, yes, about how to exert some public pressure on people who were not cooperating," Thomas said.

    Wood, commenting Monday, said Thomas admitted to "a plan of public character assassination" of the Ramseys, lacking solid evidence to arrest either of them for the Dec. 26, 1996, murder of their 6-year-old daughter, JonBenet.

    Still, Thomas' testimony does not say such a plan was put into place, although Wood is certain it was.

    "It is my belief that there were leaks from the Boulder Police Department, if not sanctioned as a part of the plan, were certainly consistent with the plan," Wood said.

    "It's difficult enough to get someone to admit they were involved in leaking confidential information," Wood said.

    "It's certainly a lot tougher to get them to say it was a part of the plan."


    Both Police Chief Mark Beckner and former chief Tom Koby declined to comment on Thomas' statement. Thomas could not be reached for comment.

    But a lawyer present for Thomas' deposition, Darnay Hoffman of New York, said Wood is blowing the testimony out of proportion.

    "This deposition transcript shows Steve Thomas not only acted honorably, but also acted in the only way a policeman could have acted in the interest of justice for this 6-year-old child," Hoffman said.

    Thomas' deposition, which his lawyers have wanted sealed since it was given, has been characterized as extremely damaging to him personally and to the investigation.

    The federal judge in the civil case, brought against the Ramseys by a former Boulder journalist they called a suspect in their book, denied Thomas' request to seal his entire deposition. Hoffman represents the plaintiff, Chris Wolf.

    A motion to withhold certain parts - which Hoffman described as "eight of 400-odd pages" in a transcript - was filed in September. The judge has not ruled.

    The excerpt released by Wood to NBC was not included in that motion, Wood said.

    Hoffman said any media campaign to sweat a confession out of the Ramseys is "pretty much standard operating procedure," noting that Susan Smith of Union, S.C. did not confess to drowning her two children in 1994 until she was isolated in the full glare of 24-hour coverage.

    Wood dismissed that comparison.

    "Susan Smith's case is not even within missile range of the Ramsey case," he said.

    Trip DeMuth, a former prosecutor assigned to the Ramsey case who is now a private attorney in Boulder, said he was never a part of any discussions about extracting a confession via media pressure.

    "Such tactics run converse to our constitutional rights to a fair trial," he said.

    "Misleading information was constantly released to the public by sources claiming to be close to the investigation," he said. Also, DeMuth said he believed "some of the FBI agents involved in the case were also involved in the Richard Jewell case," in which an Atlanta security guard was falsely accused in the press of being the Olympic Park bomber in 1996.

    Wood also represents Jewell, and has won settlements from two networks for their roles.

    Other deposition excerpts broadcast Monday included testimony from Beckner and former District Attorney Alex Hunter, who said remarks Gov. Bill Owens made in 1999, casting suspicion on the Ramseys, were "inappropriate."
     
  16. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_1554639,00.html

    DNA may not help Ramsey inquiry

    Samples found on JonBenet's clothing may be from factory

    By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
    November 19, 2002

    Investigators in the JonBenet Ramsey case believe that male DNA recovered from the slain child's underwear may not be critical evidence at all, and instead could have been left at the time of the clothing's manufacture.

    In exploring that theory, investigators obtained unopened "control" samples of identical underwear manufactured at the same plant in Southeast Asia, tested them - and found human DNA in some of those new, unused panties.

    If investigators are right about possible production-line contamination - perhaps stemming from something as innocent as a worker's cough - then the genetic markers obtained from JonBenet's underpants are of absolutely no value in potentially excluding any suspects in the unsolved Boulder slaying.

    And, investigators know the DNA found in the underwear -white, with red rose buds and the word "Wednesday" inscribed on the elastic waist band - was not left by seminal fluid.

    "There is always a possibility that it got there through human handling," said former prosecutor Michael Kane, who ran the 13-month grand jury investigation which yielded no indictments in the case, now almost six years old.

    "You have to ask yourself the possible ways that it got there," Kane said, "whether it was in the manufacture, the packaging or the distribution, or whether it was someone in the retail store who took it out to look at them."

    Another investigator with expertise on forensic issues, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the theory that the underwear DNA might be the result of point-of-production contamination.

    And, wherever it came from, that investigator said, "We certainly don't think it is attributable to an assailant. That's our belief. When you take everything else in total, it doesn't make sense. I've always said this is not a DNA case. It's not hinging on DNA evidence."

    The autopsy report in JonBenet's slaying indicates her pelvic area was swabbed for potential DNA. There has never been any report that those swabs yielded any foreign genetic material. But any significance that might have must be weighed against the fact that the coroner, Dr. John Meyer, observed that the killer may have wiped JonBenet's body with a cloth.

    JonBenet, 6, was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her parents' upscale Boulder home the afternoon of Dec. 26, 1996.

    Her body was found about seven hours after her mother called police before dawn to say she had discovered a 2 ½-page ransom note demanding $118,000 for the girl's safe return.

    John and Patsy Ramsey left Boulder the following summer for Atlanta and reside there. They have denied any involvement in their daughter's death.

    In the couple's book about JonBenet's slaying, The Death of Innocence, John Ramsey called attention to the fact that the underwear DNA did not match anyone in the Ramsey family.

    "The DNA from the stain found on JonBenet's underwear cannot be identified," he wrote. "The police have these test results, and we can only hope that they are checking all possible suspects against this genetic fingerprint.

    "Our belief is that this DNA belongs to the killer."

    On Monday, the Ramseys' attorney stopped short of making so firm a declaration.

    "It's foreign DNA," said Lin Wood. "It's not the Ramseys' DNA, and I obviously think it's a very, very important piece of evidence."

    Wood also pointed out that unidentified DNA was also recovered from beneath JonBenet's fingernails on both hands. But investigators have long said that contamination problems render those samples of little value.

    The Ramseys' attorney scoffed at the notion that the underwear DNA might be traceable to the garment's production.

    "That sounds like a pretty spectacularly imaginative theory to me," said Wood. Of Kane, he added, "I've never found Michael Kane to be objective."


    Wood said the DNA from the underwear was commingled with a spot of blood, making any theory of point-of-manufacture contamination "nonsensical." He also contended there are as many as a half-dozen genetic markers in common, between the DNA recovered from JonBenet's underwear and her fingernails.

    Kane started a new job Monday as deputy secretary for enforcement in the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue - the same post he held before Boulder District Alex Hunter selected him to guide the Ramsey grand jury probe, which concluded Oct. 13, 1999.

    He declined to comment further on the case, citing rules governing the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.

    brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or (303) 892-2742
     
  17. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_2528734,00.html

    Ramseys sue Fox News

    Litigation focuses on story that denied evidence of intruder

    By Charlie Brennan and Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News
    December 24, 2003

    JonBenet Ramsey's parents filed a $12 million federal defamation lawsuit in Atlanta on Tuesday against the Fox News Network, responding to a story broadcast last year by Denver-based staffer Carol McKinley.

    In the story that sparked the suit, McKinley stated there has "never been any evidence to link an intruder to her brutal murder."

    Fox aired that story Dec. 27, 2002, in connection with the six-year anniversary of JonBenet's death.

    "I would like to think that the lawsuit against Fox will be the last lawsuit I will have to file for members of the Ramsey family," said their attorney, L. Lin Wood. "I do not have any other lawsuits under consideration, at the present time."

    The suit said a formal retraction demand was served on Fox on Jan. 6 of this year. It seeks compensatory damages no less than $2 million and punitive damages not less than $10 million. Named as plaintiffs are parents John and Patsy Ramsey, and the girl's brother, Burke.

    "Fox lives on its alleged reputation as fair and balanced," Wood said, "and Fox has been anything but fair and balanced, with respect to the JonBenet Ramsey case."

    A Fox employee in Denver said McKinley was out of the office for the holidays and referred questions to the network's New York office.

    Fox News spokesman Robert Zimmerman in New York said he was unaware of the suit having been filed and declined further comment.

    U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes, in a 93-page order published earlier this year in Atlanta, dismissed a libel and slander lawsuit against JonBenet's parents, stating that a preponderance of evidence she reviewed in that case suggested an intruder was responsible for JonBenet's death.

    JonBenet, a 6-year-old star of child beauty pageants at the local and national levels, was found beaten and strangled in her parents' Boulder basement on Dec. 26, 1996.

    Boulder police once said the girl's parents were under an "umbrella of suspicion" in the case, but a 13-month grand jury investigation concluded in October 1999 with no indictments being issued.

    The crime remains unsolved, and Boulder District Attorney Mary Keenan announced on Dec. 20, 2002, that she was taking over lead responsibility for investigating the case.

    Boulder journalist Chris Wolf sued the Ramseys in April 2000. Wolf claimed he'd been libeled by the Ramseys' book, The Death of Innocence, in which they included him among those they considered suspects in their daughter's murder.

    Wolf's position was that the Ramseys showed malice because, according to Wolf, they knew that Patsy Ramsey was responsible for the girl's death.

    Carnes, the federal judge in Atlanta, dismissed Wolf's suit March 31, stating that Wolf and his lawyer, Darnay Hoffman of New York, had fallen far short in trying to make their case.

    Based on evidence presented in connection with Wolf's suit, Carnes ruled, "there is virtually no evidence to support plaintiff's theory that they (the Ramseys) murdered their child, but abundant evidence to support their belief that an intruder entered their home" and killed JonBenet.

    Carnes' opinion was echoed a week later by a statement issued by Keenan, which said, "I agree with (Carnes') conclusion that 'the weight of the evidence is more consistent with a theory that an intruder murdered JonBenet than it is with a theory that Mrs. Ramsey did so.' "

    Wood said the Carnes ruling and Keenan comment were pivotal benchmarks in the case.

    "Only a fool would make an accusation against this family, after the ruling of Judge Carnes, and Mary Keenan's public statement."


    Brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2742
     
  18. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_916113,00.html

    Lawyers and experts: 5 years later

    December 21, 2001

    Ramsey attorneys

    The four lawyers were brought into the case after a Ramsey family friend witnessed an interaction between John and Patsy and the Boulder police shortly after their daughter's murder.

    The friend decided right then the couple needed legal representation.

    During their 3 1/2 years on the case, Pat Furman, Pat Burke, Hal Haddon and Bryan Morgan always kept their mouths shut. They still do.

    "I really don't want to make any comment about the case," Furman, 46, said from his office at the University of Colorado, where he teaches law.

    The Ramseys, who moved to Atlanta after JonBenet's death, are now represented by Georgia attorney L. Lin Wood.

    -- Kevin Vaughan

    Donald Foster, linguistics expert

    A professor of English literature and a linguistics expert at Vassar College in New York, he reached out to help the bereaved parents of JonBenet Ramsey early in the case.

    He wrote to Patsy Ramsey, offering his language analysis skills to clear her of suspicion in the murder. Later, he reviewed the ransom note left in the family's home on the night of the murder against other letters written by Patsy Ramsey.

    And, he dropped his offer.

    "I had a good deal of naivete, cloistered as I am in the halls of academia, thinking that I could help," Foster said. "I made the mistake of commenting in a private letter before I'd seen any evidence. It wasn't professional. I just wanted to help."

    Foster refused to discuss his analysis of Patsy's word usage, sentence structure and formatting compared to that in the ransom note.

    "I acted from my heart rather than my head," Foster said.

    -- Deborah Frazier

    Darnay Hoffman, New York lawyer

    The New York City criminal defense attorney says the JonBenet Ramsey case has taught him to believe in justice: civil justice.

    Hoffman, who once filed suit to try to get murder charges filed against Patsy Ramsey, says civil lawsuits will reveal the truth about JonBenet's murder.

    "By the sixth anniversary of JonBenet's death, we will have a definitive answer about who killed her," Hoffman said. "You will have a murder case resolved in a civil suit, not a criminal trial."

    One civil case he's referring to was filed by Boulder resident Chris Wolf, named by the Ramseys as a suspect in JonBenet's murder in their book The Death of Innocence.

    "It will be like the O.J. Simpson case in terms of the criminal case not being definitive but the civil case leading to what a lot of people thought to be the truth in the murder," Hoffman said.

    Ramsey lawyer L. Lin Wood has called Wolf's libel lawsuit against the Ramseys frivolous.

    -- Deborah Frazier

    Laurence "Trip" DeMuth III, former prosecutor

    Four months into the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, he had a premonition.

    Friends and observers were fond of saying the infamous case would make him a celebrity. But a darker thought formed in DeMuth's mind, and he shared it with District Judge Diane MacDonald outside her courtroom around the time she was ruling on keeping case information sealed.

    "This case won't make anybody famous," the former Boulder prosecutor said he told the judge. "It won't do anybody any good in the long run."

    In the end, he was right. The Ramsey case would mean disappointment, not glory, for so many law enforcement officers and prosecutors.

    Throughout the case, DeMuth remained unpersuaded that John and Patsy Ramsey killed their daughter. It was an unpopular position.

    DeMuth, 43, is now working for a law firm that includes as a partner John Ramsey's close friend Mike Bynum, who helped form a corporation after the murder that purchased the Ramsey house.

    Lately, DeMuth has begun to feel vindicated for his doubt about the Ramseys' guilt.

    "Now, people ask, 'Who did it?' instead of saying, 'They did it,' " DeMuth said. "There is at least a question mark in some people's minds today when they talk to me, where in the beginning there was no room for any other possibility."

    -- Owen S. Good
     
  19. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_914794,00.html

    'This has made me unemployable'

    Journalist who did not seek limelight can testify to its remorseless glare

    By Charlie Brennan, News Staff Writer

    December 20, 2001

    Chris Wolf was a journalist between jobs the night of Dec. 26, 1996. Now he is a plaintiff in a $50 million defamation lawsuit.

    The trajectory of his story is one of the more dramatic in the JonBenet Ramsey case.

    "This has made me unemployable," said Wolf, who still lives in Boulder.

    Wolf, a 42-year-old graduate of the University of Colorado, was sharing a trailer behind the Dakota Ridge New Age healing center just south of Lyons at the time of the murder.

    He'd been experiencing rough waters in his relationship with a former dancer several years his senior. It was her who went to police with her suspicions about Wolf.

    She said that Wolf had gone out late on Christmas, the night JonBenet was murdered, and that she hadn't seen him again until finding him showering before dawn the next day. His muddied clothes were in a heap on the floor, she said.

    Wolf said he never left home that night.

    In the next several days, she told police, Wolf was extremely agitated. She also said that Wolf had a sweat shirt with the initials SBTC, standing for the Santa Barbara Tennis Club. The Ramsey ransom note was signed, "Victory, SBTC." Investigators have never settled on a definitive meaning of that curious sign-off.

    Boulder police added Wolf, who had worked at the Boulder County Business Report, the Colorado Daily and the Lyons Recorder, to the pool of suspects.

    John and Patsy Ramsey added him to their own list, according to their book, The Death of Innocence.

    "He represented too many unanswered questions," they wrote.

    Wolf hopes to collect $50 million in damages from them.

    "I have never physically harmed anyone in my life," he said in a recent interview. "I've never broken into anyone's house. I've never plotted against anyone in my life, and I've never had anything but consensual sex with anyone in my life.

    "And there's no evidence to contradict anything I just told you."

    Wolf said that Boulder police have interviewed him about the murder of his friend, Susannah Chase, a 21-year-old CU student who was slain in a downtown Boulder alley on Dec. 21, 1997.

    "The cops did ask me about Susannah Chase," Wolf said. "They asked me if I knew her. I told them I knew her as a checker at the Wild Oats market and that I never saw her or talked to her outside of that. And I told them that she was a beautiful, wonderful, innocent young woman who I never would have wanted to see any harm come to.

    "It broke my heart when I heard what happened to her. That's what I told them, and that's the truth."

    Wolf denies a report that he was a friend of another onetime suspect, longtime CU journalism professor Bill McReynolds, whoplayed Santa Claus at the Ramseys' Christmas party two nights before the murder.

    "I spoke to Bill McReynolds once in my life, and that was during a class that he was teaching," Wolf said.

    McReynolds, contacted recently, also denied having known Wolf well.

    But Boulder County Commissioner Paul Danish said he remembers running into Wolf in front of Boulder's downtown post office in fall 1996. Wolf told him he had paid a hospital visit to McReynolds, who had a collapsed lung, Danish said.

    Wolf counters Danish's recollection: "Never happened. I never knew he was in the hospital. I had no knowledge of him other than that he was a professor."

    Wolf says he thinks John and Patsy Ramsey killed their daughter. He is suing the Ramseys for naming him as a suspect in their book.

    "Our lawsuit is based on the evidence that points to the fact that they are the perpetrators of that crime, and clearly, like a lot of other people, I think that there's no other alternative," he said. "There is no other possibility."

    Ramsey attorney L. Lin Wood responded that he believes Wolf is a pawn in the case.

    "Chris Wolf is being used by his attorney for purposes unrelated to any legitimate effort to represent Chris Wolf," he said. "The Ramseys correctly identified Chris Wolf as a suspect in their book. He represents too many unanswered questions, and his lawsuit is frivolous."

    Wolf is bothered by his portrayal in the media.

    "I keep reading where people say I was a part-time journalist. That's not true. I was full-time. I had a lot of credibility. I had a future as a reporter."
    For a long time, he refused to believe his former girlfriend had fingered him to the police.

    But a couple of years after the murder, Wolf, a workout enthusiast, was spotted lifting weights at a Boulder recreation center by an acquaintance, who asked him if he finally accepted the fact that it was his former girlfriend who put police on his tail -- changing his life irrevocably. Finally, he did.

    "That Jackie," he said, with a somewhat rueful laugh, "she's a real pistol."

    Contact Charlie Brennan at (303) 892-2742 or brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com.
     
  20. Deja Nu

    Deja Nu Banned

    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_913466,00.html

    Former Detective Steve Thomas remains Ramseys' top accuser

    He may yet face parents of JonBenet in court if their libel lawsuit against him goes to trial

    By Owen S. Good, News Staff Writer

    December 19, 2001

    Steve Thomas was a narcotics detective for the Boulder Police Department on Dec. 26, 1996. Today, he is a carpenter, a published author and a defendant in an $65 million libel lawsuit.

    Thomas, 39, left the Police Department in 1998 on what would have been JonBenet Ramsey's eighth birthday, frustrated with the investigation of her parents, whom he considers responsible for her death.

    To this day he remains John and Patsy Ramsey's most persistent and public accuser, having published a book in 2000 that details his theory of how Patsy killed her child, then staged a kidnapping scene. He had a face-to-face confrontation with the Ramseys on national cable TV shortly after the book was released.

    "I think you're good for it," he told Patsy on CNN's Larry King Live.

    In March, the Ramseys sued Thomas for libel.

    Thomas declined to be interviewed for this article.

    He may get the chance to face the Ramseys in court and, in a way, try them for murder, even after turning in his badge three years ago. Truth is a defense in libel lawsuits, and Ramsey attorney L. Lin Wood of Atlanta acknowledges that proving Thomas's theory right or wrong will play a role in which side wins the case.

    "Steve Thomas is allowed to say, 'Yeah, I said you killed your daughter, now you prove you didn't,' " Wood said. "It's a total perversion of justice."

    Thomas pursued "his version of vigilante justice" after a grand jury declined to indict either parent in 1999, Wood said when the libel lawsuit was filed.

    "He knows they will never be charged, so he'll just write a book convicting them of the crime by bootstrapping his credibility as a former detective," Wood said.

    Thomas's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, of Los Angeles, won a wrongful-death civil lawsuit in 1997 that found O.J. Simpson liable for the death of his estranged wife and Ron Goldman. Petrocelli did not return a call seeking comment.

    This summer, a judge quashed a subpoena issued for Thomas to appear in a Jefferson County court trial after the process server testified that he had lied in court when he said he had served the subpoena.

    Thomas had said he never was subpoenaed to testify in the criminal trial of Thomas Miller, who was found not guilty on charges of trying to sell the ransom note in the Ramsey case.

    About the same time, Thomas was traveling to Germany to visit his wife, who had moved there.

    On a Web site, Thomas says all the money he makes from JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation is going to pay his legal bills. He also says the lawsuit has forced him to sell his house.

    The Web site asks for donations.

    "Everyone involved in this case feels disappointed as this anniversary date approaches," Thomas writes on the Web site. "This was and continues to be a terrible reflection on the criminal justice system in Boulder."
     
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