RMN - Pt 1 - Experts: Resolution of Ramsey case unlikely

Miss steps
Experts: Resolution of Ramsey case unlikely

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
December 23, 2006

The murder took place Christmas night. Even Santa Claus was a suspect.

Police searched the house and found nothing, leaving it to the missing girl's father to find her body in his own basement.

The ransom note was signed with an acronym, "S.B.T.C," that 10 years later has yet to be decoded.

It was a case in which the grieving parents shunned the press for a week - until they submitted to an interview on national television, smack in the middle of football bowl coverage on New Year's afternoon. They declined thorough police interviews for four months - but since have given three.

Officers, detectives and lawyers who'd enjoyed success, or at least the quiet anonymity of satisfying careers out of the spotlight, saw those careers publicly derailed.

The victim's mother, who labored for nearly 10 years under varying degrees of suspicion while battling persistent ovarian cancer, died earlier this year.

There have been a baker's dozen books and several movies and documentaries, noisily posing questions that, a decade later, still have no answers.

There has even been an arrest - the apprehension of a self-professed pedophile who confessed and offered to plead guilty, but was released and dismissed as a suspect less than two weeks later.

Now, 10 years after the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, many agree: a successful courtroom prosecution for the 6-year-old's murder may be virtually impossible.

Denver defense lawyer Larry Pozner sees only one conceivable way to get a conviction.

"They match the DNA in her underwear and under her fingernails with a suspect who then confesses and relates in profound detail a second-by-second account of stalking her, staking out the house, (his) method of entry, (and a) method of death (that) lines up with the kidnap note, (and he) has a history as a predator - and he pleads guilty," Pozner said.

"They have ruined it with bad police work, followed by foolhardy political moves. This is a saga of what you can do wrong when you seek to do justice."

Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy believes the case still has a chance, and she's vowed to pursue a meaningful conclusion.

But those who agree with Pozner have built a case of their own. They point to half a dozen factors that pose what they believe are insurmountable obstacles.

Exhibit 1: No more secrets

Police typically work to preserve the integrity of an investigation by keeping at least one ace up their sleeve - a telling detail that only the killer could know.

One factor that made Karr an attractive suspect to Boulder authorities, they said, was the 41-year-old teacher's voluminous knowledge of case details, including being able to sketch roughly accurate diagrams of the Ramseys' Boulder home.

But other studious case followers can do the same - house plans have been reproduced in books and are available in cyberspace. Many of those who have made the case their hobby were not impressed by Karr's knowledge.

The truth is, detectives have no more "only the killer could know" cards left to play.

"The ability of our office or any law enforcement to connect this crime to a person based on something that no one else knows about was gone a long time ago," Lacy said on Aug. 29 after clearing Karr as a suspect. "That's impossible."

Exhibit 2: Passage of time

Homicide investigators subscribe to a truism: If a crime is not solved in the first several days, the likelihood plummets rapidly.

There are, of course, exceptions. But already in the 10 years since JonBenet's death, time has cost more than the usual worries about deteriorating evidence and fading witness memories.

One key witness and several suspects have passed away - most notably Patsy Ramsey, who died of cancer at her father's home in Roswell, Ga., on June 24.

Once branded, along with her husband, John Ramsey, as being under the "umbrella of suspicion" by Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner, she was a central witness - whatever her actions prior to, and subsequent to, her daughter's death.

Patsy Ramsey's recorded statements may not be allowed in court, since she can't be cross-examined.

Much of what Patsy Ramsey saw that morning was also witnessed by her husband.

However, retired Boulder Assistant District Attorney Bill Wise said the parents' testimony isn't interchangeable.

"The part where she gets up in the morning and goes down and finds the (ransom) note, he is not present," Wise said.

There are numerous other points that pertain uniquely to Patsy Ramsey. For example, several fibers were found on the duct tape covering JonBenet's mouth that were microscopically similar to a jacket worn by Patsy on Christmas night.

Police considered that to be significant, but forensic expert Dr. Henry Lee has concluded that the fibers could have ended up there if "a mother kissed her child good night" and the fibers were transferred.

Lawyers will never be able to question Patsy Ramsey about that possibility.

At least two other men who were under scrutiny have died. One is former University of Colorado journalism professor Bill McReynolds, who played Santa at a party at the Ramseys' two nights before the slaying. Another is Michael Helgoth, who owned a stun gun, Hi-Tec boots and committed suicide in Boulder on Feb. 14, 1997, one day after a news conference in which then-Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter warned that the list of suspects was narrowing.

Denver defense lawyer Scott Robinson, who writes legal analysis for the Rocky Mountain News, said a deceased alternate suspect is a defense lawyer's delight.

"Helgoth," Robinson said. "That guy would be great, because he's not going to come in and say, 'I didn't do it.' You can't bring in a corpse and prop him up and have him say he didn't do it. Santa Claus, too."

Lacy is not concerned about the Helgoths and McReynoldses.

"Whether it's by DNA or a confession - and if the person is confessing, we're able to corroborate by DNA, or access, or psychopathy or other evidence - I don't think a defense attorney is going to be very successful pointing at alternate suspects," Lacy said.

Exhibit 3: Arndt dilemma

Few figures have seen their role criticized as much as former Boulder Detective Linda Arndt.

One of the first investigators to the Ramseys' home that morning, she was alone with the couple and their friends when JonBenet's body was found.

Arndt moved the child's body from a hallway into the living room and didn't intervene when John Ramsey placed a quilt over his daughter. In fact, according to one account in a book, she then adjusted it.

Although she would later testify in an unsuccessful defamation suit against the Boulder Police Department that she called repeatedly, in vain, for backup, Arndt is among those blamed for not securing the crime scene.

Robinson is more forgiving of Arndt than some.

"I think the fact that this was an upper-middle-class family with no apparent criminal history or leanings, that may have led Arndt into believing this was a true kidnapping," Robinson said.

If someone is ever put on trial, Arndt would certainly be called as a witness.

And she has done the prosecution no favors with some remarks she made in the years since.

Most notably, Arndt told ABC's Good Morning America in September 1999 that when Ramsey brought his daughter upstairs and she saw the girl's lifeless body, "My mind exploded." She added, "I mean it literally. . . . I saw black with thousands of lights."

She also told the audience she had a "nonverbal exchange" with John Ramsey when their eyes met over JonBenet's body.

As they looked at each other, Arndt said, "I remember, and I wore a shoulder holster, tucking my gun right next to me . . . and consciously counting out the 18 bullets. Because I didn't know if we'd all be alive when people show up."

Pozner said such remarks by the investigator would be admissible at trial.

"The credibility of every witness is at issue, and this goes to her credibility. 'You saw blinding light? You saw a thousand stars?' You lose a juror right there. You may lose five."

Arndt recently declined to explain those remarks.

However, she said, "From my understanding, what the public has been told is that, from the moment I got involved, I am responsible for every error, omission and screw-up in this case. Just me, no one else.

"And it's very convenient to lay it all on my doorstep. But it's a travesty to the truth - not my truth, but the truth of what happened to JonBenet."

Lacy believes Arndt and others who have made comments on television, in civil depositions or in other venues, pose hurdles.

"The officers who appeared at the scene are definitely state's witnesses - and maybe defense witnesses, too," she said.

"Any state witness who made statements outside of their report is going to be a problem. Because all those statements come back to haunt you."

Exhibit 4: 2nd noisy exit

If any detective's departure was more noisy than Arndt's, it was that of Steve Thomas.

Thomas quit the Boulder Police Department on June 26, 1998, but it wasn't until Aug. 6 of that year - JonBenet's eighth birthday, were she still alive - that it became very public knowledge.

In a resignation letter that weighed in at eight pages, Thomas laid bare the core of the dysfunctional relationship that had festered for 18 months between his department and Hunter's office, blasting the prosecutor's team for "facilitating the escape of justice."

It went on. And on.

"There is evidence that was critical to this investigation, that to this day has never been collected, because neither search warrants nor other means were supported to do so," he wrote. "Not to mention evidence which still sits today, untested in the laboratory, as differences continue about how to proceed."

Thomas was mostly silent in succeeding years, but in the wake of the Karr situation, he posted an open letter on a Web site maintained by friends and supporters:

Forstevethomas.com.

"As illustrated in my 1998 resignation letter, I previously had little confidence (now, none) in the Boulder DA's Office ever solving the Ramsey homicide," he wrote. "If there were any lingering questions as to why I departed, I believe the events of the 13 days in August concerning John Mark Karr simply add an exclamation point to that resignation."

The no-confidence vote of a former detective, who now builds houses in Australia, might not seem a fatal blow in a future prosecution.

But he, too, could be called as a defense witness.

Lacy said it's possible she could put on a case in which he's barely mentioned. But even if the prosecution wants to use Thomas simply to establish certain facts he uncovered as an investigator, some say, his book poses more problems.

"If Steve Thomas takes the stand and says X, he can be contradicted with the fact that he wrote Y in his book," Robinson said. "If you write it down, and you're a witness and you change your story, you're going to hear about it in cross-examination."

The mere existence of Thomas's book could create problems.

Robinson said, "If you can show someone profited at all (from the case), that's going to stain the jury's perception of what they have to say."

Exhibit 5: The Karr fiasco

Numerous prosecutors and investigators - retired El Paso County homicide investigator Lou Smit, Boulder County sheriff's Detective Steve Ainsworth, former Boulder Deputy District Attorney Trip DeMuth, to name a few - have argued for years that the evidence strongly suggests the involvement of an intruder.

For many, that theory has been a tough sell, even after a federal judge in March 2003 dismissed a libel case filed against the Ramseys and stated that the evidence she reviewed was "more consistent with a theory that an intruder murdered JonBenet than it was with a theory that Mrs. Ramsey did so."

The surprising Aug. 15 arrest of confessed intruder suspect Karr, in Bangkok, Thailand - followed quickly by the announcement that he was a fraud - could make any future intruder suspect be met with greater skepticism.

And, with his highly detailed confession, shared in e-mails to University of Colorado media-studies professor Michael Tracey and subsequently with Lacy's investigator, Karr could be the strongest element of any future intruder suspect's defense.

"Everything that pointed to John Mark Karr would be introduced in trial," said former Denver District Attorney Norm Early. "And everything that pointed to no intruder would be introduced in trial."

Lacy said she didn't think the Karr episode would impair the future prosecution of another intruder suspect.

But she agreed that another suspect's lawyer might well point to Karr, along with "everyone who has been looked at - and that's a very large number of people.

"There are, as in any case, methods for dealing with that."

Exhibit 6: The DNA

Supporters of the Ramseys have long held to the fact that DNA recovered from JonBenet's underwear matches no one in the family.

But Lacy, in announcing why Karr was being freed, admitted what several other investigators connected to the case had been saying for years: It might not even be the killer's DNA.

It is possible that the unidentified male DNA might have been left there through secondary contact, or even when the underwear was manufactured.

"The DNA could be an artifact," Lacy said in August. "It isn't necessarily the killer's. There's a probability that it's the killer's. But it could be something else."

In Karr's case, she told reporters, the DNA was even less valuable as proof because if Karr's specific confession were true, the DNA on the underwear should have been his.

"There is no question that, if you get a DNA match, you still have a long way to go," said Wise, the No. 2 prosecutor in the Boulder office through the first four years of the case. "You can't build a case just on the DNA."

There's disagreement about whether Lacy's news-conference remarks could be introduced at trial.

Lacy said last week that DNA could be a hindrance or a help to the prosecution.

"Where you have DNA, particularly where it's found in this case, prosecuting another (suspect) that doesn't match that DNA is highly problematic," she said. "It's not impossible, but it's highly problematic - and it doesn't make any difference who it is.

"But if the DNA matches, that's a different story, and that's a very prosecutable case."

Forecast: Cloudy

Different players in the sad drama offer different reasons. But there's near unanimity that a jury will never hear the Ramsey case.

"The case is a quagmire, and it's one that's not likely to be prosecuted if all the principals live to be 200 years old," Early said.

Said Pozner, the defense lawyer, "They have convinced half of a prospective jury panel that it is a Ramsey - no matter what the evidence is. So if it isn't a Ramsey (on trial), you have built-in reasonable doubt."

But Lacy, who will oversee the Ramsey puzzle until she leaves office in January 2009, "absolutely" believes a trial - and a conviction - are still possible.

"Obviously, it would be a ton of work to put it together," she said. "This case is unusual - compared to every other case."

The realities of justice

Everyone has an opinion about the possibilities of catching and successfully trying anyone for the murder of JonBenet. Here are a few:

• "Being realistic, the way you have to look at it is, we follow all of what appear to be legitimate leads - particularly from law enforcement. But I don't think anybody believes we're going to find some kind piece of (previously unknown) evidence that solves the case. It's going to be a confession or DNA."

?Mary Lacy

Boulder district attorney

• "This is one of the saddest chapters in police work we have ever witnessed in Colorado. They made it absolutely unsolvable."

Larry Pozner

Denver defense lawyer

• "The death of this child remains yet another unresolved homicide in which the administration of justice is left to God. At least there is consolation in that end."

Steve Thomas

former Boulder Police detective

• "Beauty queen, Boulder, Christmas, fake kidnapping. If I were to write a crime novel and include even half the elements of the JonBenet Ramsey saga, no publishing house in its right mind would touch it. It could not happen in real life. It's just not realistic."

Scott Robinson

Denver defense lawyer

• "If you want to hold people accountable, it's too late. It's been 10 years. What are you going to do to the people who are really responsible for making this case non-prosecutable?"

Linda Arndt

former Boulder police detective

• "I don't think the case will be solved. But if there were a confession, or if they could match the DNA and then - unlike they did with Karr - place the person in Boulder at the right time, then I think the case can be solved. But I think the chances of either one of those things happening are pretty slim."

Bill Wise

retired assistant Boulder district attorney

• "Because of my faith, I know the end of the story. I will be in heaven. I know I will be reunited with Patsy and JonBenet and Beth (a daughter from a previous marriage who died in a car accident). And I'm not ready to go yet. I've still got some things to do here. But I'm not afraid of that."

John Ramsey

to Barbara Walters, on ABC's 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006

About the series: Ten years of mystery

• Today: Many experts agree mistakes, missteps, the cumulative effects of time and other factors combine to make it highly unlikely the JonBenet Ramsey case will ever result in a trial and conviction.

• Monday: Part 1 of an exclusive interview with former Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter, breaking his silence on the Ramsey case six years after leaving office.

• Tuesday: Part 2 of an exclusive interview with Alex Hunter, who talks about his feelings concerning the recent death of Patsy Ramsey, the grand jury investigation, former Boulder police Detective Steve Thomas and more.

 

Patsy's finally out from under the umbrella of suspicion, isn't she? Hooray for Patsy, and a huge hurrah from John!

 

Patsy's umbrella is still hanging in her closet, she's just not there to stand under it anymore.

 

:floor: :rolling: But, hey, it's been a good ride, hasn't it?

 

What a perfect line for opening a hack novel.

 

And why, Miss Hair Curtains, did you hire the man SINGLEHANDEDLY responsible for THAT, dragging "his PowerPoint Presentation" of the case evidence to every RST forum and TV program for display, to help with YOUR investigation of the murder? And why do you STILL listen to his deLOUsional advice?

 

I think Steve is done. I don't blame him.

 

"The DNA could be an artifact," Lacy said in August. "It isn't necessarily the killer's. There's a probability that it's the killer's. But it could be something else."

So profound...the DNA can be useless and not neccessarily the killers....though there's a probability it is the killers....if it's not something else.

I really do believe Mary Lacy when she told us she is not an expert in search and seizure laws after a statement like that.....in fact I give Lacy credit with being totally stupid of any kind of law.

 

RMN - Pt 2 - Alex Hunter Speaks

Justice that faltered
Former Boulder DA Alex Hunter reflects on the Ramsey case

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
December 25, 2006

Mistakes have been made by honorable people, usually with the best of intentions.

Six years after he last spoke of the case, former Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter is breaking his silence on the mystery that defined his career: Who killed JonBenet Ramsey?

As he sat down last week to talk on his 70th birthday, while snow buried his property in east Boulder, Hunter urged compassion for those who erred - including, on occasion, himself.

"The search for the truth has not given us the nut," he conceded. "And may not. Although the process faltered somewhat along parts of the way - some of it due to my decisionmaking - I think it worked pretty well.

"I know we're in kind of a 'if-you- don't-win-it-you've-lost-it' sort of society. But justice is a little bit different than that. I think some credit needs to be given to these police officers and these prosecutors and others for their commitment here."

At the same time, however, he was critical of several decisions made in the case over the years, including some of those of his successor, Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy.

It's wrong, Hunter said, for the investigation to remain under her authority, as it has since it was transferred to her office from Boulder police in December 2002.

"I don't think anything like that has ever happened, such a transfer," said Hunter. "It may have been a highlight in (Boulder Police Chief Mark) Beckner's whole career to be able to say goodbye to this, outside the door. You know, 'Here, Mary, it's yours.' But I think it's unfortunate for a couple of reasons."

For one, Hunter, said, district attorneys' offices are typically not equipped as fully functioning investigative agencies, with all the contacts, relationships and resources of a police department.

"Another question is . . . what happens when Mary Lacy leaves" when her last term expires in January 2009?

"Then, does it stay there? No, it needs to come back to the Boulder Police Department sooner or later, in my opinion," Hunter said.

Hunter admitted, however, "I'm not sure Beckner wants it back - or whoever his successor might be. But that's where it should be."

Lacy and Beckner themselves declined to comment on Hunter's position on who should handle the case.

Hunter also second-guessed Lacy - who worked under him for many years as a valued prosecutor skilled in handling sexual assault cases - for a controversial statement she issued in April 2003.

Lacy's statement followed the dismissal of a civil defamation case filed by the Ramseys, in which U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes concluded that the evidence she reviewed was more consistent with the theory that an intruder killed JonBenet on Christmas 1996 rather than anyone in the family.

That flew in the face of the prevailing theory of some case investigators that Patsy Ramsey had killed her daughter.

Lacy issued her own statement, saying she concurred with Carnes.

While emphasizing that he was not speaking to what he believes the evidence shows, Hunter said, "I was taken aback by that because I, for example, knew that the federal judge (in Atlanta) would not have had access to the 13 months of work of the grand jury, that it was a civil case, that the burden of proof was different."

So surprised was Hunter that Lacy chimed in on the ruling, that he expressed doubt that her comment - issued in a formal press release - was being reported accurately.

"It's a prosecutor sort of saying how she or he thinks things look at the time, and I saw that as something that might come back to haunt the prosecution and to prejudice a potential case in the future."

Any lawyer some day representing a defendant who was not "an intruder" suspect, Hunter said, would "by hook or by crook" get that statement in front of a jury.

"That boxes you in," he said, "in a case that needs to be absolutely open until the truth is determined."

On a more recent and far more highly publicized chapter of the Ramsey saga, Hunter was more sparing of criticism.

He closely followed the August arrest and ultimate release of a phony confessor in the case, John Mark Karr.

"I think at first flash, I had a hope that this case might be solved," said Hunter. "Now, I had that kind of a flash in the past. I had a flash like that when I learned all there was to learn about Santa Claus."

He was referring to former University of Colorado journalism professor Bill McReynolds, now deceased. McReynolds played St. Nick at the Ramseys' Christmas party two nights before JonBenet was killed, and, with his wife, presented investigators with a number of reasons to consider them both briefly as suspects.

"I had had a flash (with McReynolds) the case was over. We had it! And I had other flashes over time, so I knew we better be careful about that (Karr) flash because it might be a flash in the pan."

Hunter quickly started developing reservations about Karr as a suspect, while reminding himself that there was plenty he didn't know - couldn't know - about what was driving Lacy's decision to have the 41-year-old arrested in Thailand and brought back to Boulder.

"I have to say it took some guts and it took some risk for her to make that move, and I give her credit for the guts and taking the risk. I have no doubt that her heart was in the right place."

Hunter left office in January 2001, but he spent four-plus years on the case. Perhaps his most memorable moment in the spotlight is one he said he would handle differently if he had it to do over again.

On Feb. 13, 1997, as national interest in JonBenet's murder raged, fueled by the 2 4/7 cable news coverage and the constant chattering of celebrity legal pundits, Hunter went before a packed press conference and said, "The list of suspects narrows. Soon there will be no one on the list but you."

The comment led everyone listening to believe that the remaining days of freedom for a marked man, or woman, were numbered.

"I probably would have scripted it a little bit differently today," Hunter said. "I think I was coming from a point where I hoped I might be able to shake something out of the bush, and I might suggest to the killer that I knew something that they didn't know.

"I think my heart was in the right place, but I think I was probably operating a little bit from too low in my gut."

Hunter said he never liked the "umbrella of suspicion" under which Beckner famously placed John and Patsy Ramsey in December 1997, and Hunter regrets sounding that day as if all his own ducks were in a row.

"At that point in time . . . there was not sufficient information for somebody to be suggesting that they . . . had a loop they were about to throw over somebody's head."

Hunter sees the Ramsey epic as a "teaching case," although not everyone in this investigation might have earned a passing grade.

"The dynamics that swirl around a high-profile case touch everyone involved with the case and make them behave in ways that I think are different from the way they ordinarily behave," said Hunter.

"It drives people to drink. It drives the public crazy. They want closure. They can't believe that this kind of a thing has happened."

The series: 10 years of mystery

• Saturday: Many experts agree that mistakes, missteps, the cumulative effects of time and other factors combine to make it highly unlikely the JonBenet Ramsey case will ever result in a trial and conviction.

• Today: Part 1 of an exclusive interview with former Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter, who is breaking his silence on the Ramsey case six years after leaving office.

• Tuesday: Part 2 of an exclusive interview with Alex Hunter, who talks about his feelings concerning the recent death of Patsy Ramsey, the grand jury investigation, former Boulder Detective Steve Thomas and more.

• Missed the first part? Read the complete story, as well as the extensive Ramsey case archive, online at RockyMountainNews.com.

Where are they now?

A look at some of the major figures in the case:

PATSY RAMSEY

• Died June 24, 2006, in Roswell, Ga., at age 49. Buried at Marietta, Ga., a few strides from JonBenet's gravesite.

JOHN RAMSEY, 63

• Living in Atlanta, where he met Patsy and where the Ramseys returned in 1997 following JonBenet's death. Currently exploring new business opportunities.

BURKE RAMSEY, 19

• JonBenet's older brother, who was at home the night she died, is a sophomore at Purdue University.

ALEX HUNTER, 70

• Former Boulder district attorney

is retired and living in Boulder.

MICHAEL KANE, 55

• Ran the Ramsey grand jury investigation from September 1998 to October 1999. Now executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Lives in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

LINDA ARNDT, 46

• Boulder detective in charge of the crime scene on Dec. 26, 1996. Now a writer, living in a state neighboring Colorado.

BILL McREYNOLDS

• Retired journalism professor, who played Santa Claus for Ramseys' party. Died Sept. 2, 2002, in Mashpee, Mass., at age 72.

 

Thank you for posting this RR. I'm sure that in retrospect Alex Hunter does wish he had made some different decisions, and it actually took some guts to make some of the statements he made in this story.

I wonder if Lacy will have the guts to speak out in 6 years from now and say the same thing.

Little

 

Hunter can always run for election again since he sat out a term, can't he?! If so, there is a small chance that he can rectify the situation.....I'm thinking that he is the only one that can pull of a Hail Mary pass this late in the game.

Merry Christmas Little!

 

Merry Christmas all

Wouldn't that be ironic for Hunter to be re-elected and finally say OUT LOUD that the Ramseys were "good for it"? I don't think he has the ethics or the balls, but it's a really nice thought.

But hey, ya never know. Nothing is too strange or weird in this case; anything can happen

 

"The search for the truth has not given us the nut," he conceded. "And may not. Although the process faltered somewhat along parts of the way - some of it due to my decisionmaking - I think it worked pretty well.

Oh, Alex, Alex, Alex...The search for the truth DID give you the nut - his name was John Mark Karr.

So your decision-making worked pretty well??? Where is JonBenet's killer today, dear Alex?? Where is justice 10 years down the road? Has it "faltered," or did you derail it? Absolute corruption corrupts absolutely, dear, dear Alex.

 

Yeah, if you're reasoning is that the police are biased, why hire a man who is biased the other way and PROUD of it?

 

No such luck, imo.

 

I agree with you, Barbara. He's just throwing us a few crumbs, but he's such a weakling. Takes him forever to make a point. He needs a good shake, or a good slap. take your pick.

 

My Impression....

while reading this article is that Alex Hunter is now completely senile....

While Hunter has always expressed himself poorly in the Ramsey case, he has now reduced his use of expressions to emotions and body parts....clearly not a professional approach.

His current simplistic explanations and surealistic conclusions make me wonder if he was ever a capable prosecutor capable of putting the simple facts of the case that pointed to the real killer together to make a case....

Alex, it seems, has always ignored what was right before him....Always off chasing rainbows, enamoured by the drama of the Ramsey case and by the attention of the media....

What really gets to me about his current statements in this article, is that he is talking about who should be handling this case 10 years down the road! Hello Alex! Are you assuming that it will take another 10 years to solve and prosecute the Ramsey case? I suppose Alex and the rest of the RST think that with enough time and money spent, all of the justice seekers will finally give up and go away....

When I read something like this article, it only makes me more determined to stay and help in some small way to keep this long-standing Ramsey case in public view...

Alex needs to be told that he failed, and not in some small way....He failed to find justice for a murdered innocent when he had all the necessary facts before him and chose to ignore them....He failed because he lacked the integrity, intelligence and courage to face the facts and use them to prosecute the powerful people whom he knew to be guilty....

Now his coming forward on his 70th birthday with his silly musings and excuses borders on the ridiculous....

Voyager

 

Hunter represents a real-life version of the Bill Cosby routine about how his own parents spoiled their grandchildren by giving them lots of money when they did no such thing to him as a child. As he said, "They do it because they're getting old and want to get into heaven."

Hunter feels his mortality pressing on him, and wants to die believing that he did his best for the case. But he did not, and no amount of historical revisionism will change that fact. When JonBenet was murdered, Hunter was sixty years old and had already been exposed to as many learning opportunities about the legal system and about murder cases both intruder and parental as he was ever going to have. His flawed decisions in the course of the case were made by a man who was sixty years old and older, not a fresh-faced twenty-year-old with no experience or perspective behind him. He made his decisions knowingly and to serve his agendas of the time, and any efforts at trying to change the record about that should fail.

 

Former Boulder DA: Errors In JonBenet Investigation

POSTED: 5:13 am MST December 26, 2006

BOULDER, Colo -- Former District Attorney Alex Hunter has conceded he made some errors in the investigation of JonBenet Ramsey's slaying 10 years ago and questioned some decisions his successor, Mary Lacy, has made in the case.

"Although the process faltered somewhat along parts of the way -- some of it due to my decision-making -- I think it worked pretty well," he said in an interview published Monday in the Rocky Mountain News.

Hunter was Boulder County district attorney when JonBenet was found dead in her parents' Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996. He left office in January 2001.

The mystery of who killed the 6-year-old beauty queen remains unsolved, and Hunter said the truth may never be known.

"The search for the truth has not given us the nut. And may not," he said.

Hunter second-guessed a comment he made at a press conference in February 1997 when he seemed to tell the killer that investigators were closing in: "The list of suspects narrows. Soon there will be no one on the list but you."

He said this week that his 1997 statement came from the hope that "I might be able to shake something out of the bush, and I might suggest to the killer that I knew something that they didn't know.

"I think my heart was in the right place, but I think I was probably operating a little bit from too low in my gut," he said.

Hunter questioned Lacy's public statement in 2003 that she agreed with a federal judge who concluded evidence pointed more toward an intruder than a member of the Ramsey family as JonBenet's killer.

The judge made the statement while dismissing a defamation lawsuit filed in the aftermath of the slaying. Hunter said the federal judge had not seen all the reports developed in the investigation.

Hunter also said Lacy's statement "might come back to haunt" prosecutors if they ever decide to charge someone who was not an intruder.

"That boxes you in a case that needs to be absolutely open until the truth is determined," he said.

Hunter also said the investigation, which was transferred to the district attorney from the police department in 2002, should someday be sent back to police.

He said district attorneys' offices are typically not as well-equipped to investigate as police.

"Another question is ... what happens when Mary Lacy leaves" when her last term expires in January 2009?" Hunter said. "Then, does it stay there? No, it needs to come back to the Boulder Police Department sooner or later, in my opinion."

Lacy and Police Chief Mark Beckner declined to comment on Hunter's statement about jurisdiction in the case.

 

"I think my heart was in the right place, but I think I was probably operating a little bit from too low in my gut," he said.

Well, that's true - he was a true *sshole and his results were shite.