Colorado Governor Owens blasts Boulder prosecutor!

Trish, check with that petition website to be sure. It's our petition so we can add an update addendum to it. It's appropriate considering the case is still live.

Yes, this is Owens' last year in office and he may want to go out with a bang since he took such a sound rounding when LimpWood entered the case and Lacy took over. Considering he is now speaking out against Lacy's handling of this KarrWreck, I'd say presenting an updated petition now rather than later would present the best opp we've ever had to getting it taken seriously. Either a special prosecutor or the FBI, or both, need to be brought into this case. No more Boulder-phlucking!

 

No, I didn't know we still could. I'll sign whatever you put up. This farce needs to stop, and the sooner something gets to Owens, the better. Strike while the iron is hot!

Heymom

 

I am not sure that Owens will want to be reminded about our efforts with the petition exactly right now.....but that's the chance he took!

 

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/county_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2423_4953123,00.html

Steve Thomas, who resigned from the Boulder police department in 1998 and sharply criticized the DA's office for its handling of the case, said Lacy should resign.

"This was just a blunder of beyond anything I could ever imagine in this case," Thomas told the Rocky Mountain News. "She has lost all credibility in the police community, and that poses a real and immediate problem that anybody can understand."

Gov. Bill Owens weighed in as well Monday, criticizing Lacy.

"I find it incredible that Boulder authorities wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars to bring Karr to Colorado given such a lack of evidence," Owens said in a statement. "Mary Lacy should be held accountable for the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history."

Observers agree that Karr should not have been teaching children, as he was set to do in Thailand. But some say Lacy could have kept him in custody and continued her investigation without the public attention.

"There were so many more professional and discreet ways to investigate John Mark Karr," said Craig Silverman, a former Denver deputy district attorney. "He should have been transported to Sonoma County."

When Karr was taken into custody in Thailand for immigration violations, he was wanted in northern California's Sonoma County on five misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography. Silverman said that Lacy could have worked with California officials to keep Karr there while she further investigated him.

Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler and crime analyst, agreed.

"They could have gone to California and said, 'Hey, we'll pay to bring him back on your case,'" McCrary said. "Then there's no dog and pony show."

Bob Grant, former Adams County District Attorney with 29 years of prosecuting experience, said Lacy may have tried that route.

"I have to assume that she attempted that," Grant said. "But those are misdemeanor charges, and you don't extradite across state lines for misdemeanor charges and definitely not internationally."

Grant said despite all of the "Monday-morning quarterbacking," Lacy did the right thing.

"He hadn't been in the country in four years, he'd made detailed statements that included threats to other little girls, and the Thai authorities felt compelled to move," Grant said.

Obtaining an untainted DNA sample from him in Thailand — one that wouldn't be dismissed in court — might have been difficult, Grant said.

"The fact of the matter is she wouldn't know whether to trust that or not," Grant said.

:martini:

 

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4951688,00.html

Case setback ends detective's silence
By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
August 28, 2006

Former Boulder Police Detective Steve Thomas broke a five-year silence on the JonBenet Ramsey case this afternoon to blast District Attorney Mary Lacy for arresting John Mark Karr, a man she has decided not to charge.

"This was not a faux pas. This was not a misstep," said Thomas, 44, and now living in Florida. "This was just a blunder of beyond anything I could ever imagine in this case."

"If anybody questioned why I resigned in protest from this criminal justice system in 1998, I think this latest series of events just adds an exclamation point to that."

Thomas quit the Boulder department with a lengthy and passionate resignation letter dated Aug. 6, 1998 — it would have been JonBenet's eighth birthday — blasting the district attorney's office for its handling of the case and alleging the justice system in Boulder was the detectives' greatest obstacle in bringing JonBenet's killer or killers to justice.

"In hindsight, I have tempered my criticism of former D.A. Alex Hunter," said Thomas. "At least I can say he was trying, diligently. At least he was in the same ballpark, the same zip code, as the detectives working the case.

"Mary Lacy makes Alex Hunter look like Rudy Giuliani in comparison," Thomas added. "She now has to stand up at the podium, and she has got to take a bullet or two on this. She has lost all credibility in the police community, and that poses a real and immediate problem that anybody can understand."

Asked if he believed, as others are expressing, that Lacy should step down, Thomas said, "I think that's an understatement." He said Lacy has been "myopic, let’s say, in her view of the depth and breadth of where she wants the investigation to go."

Thomas was sued by JonBenet's parents, for stating in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live, that he thought Patsy Ramsey, the child's mother, was "good for" the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet. That suit was settled out of court, and Thomas said terms of the settlement preclude parties to it from commenting on the terms.

"I always want to hold on to some inherent belief there may be some resolution" to the star-crossed investigation, Thomas said, "but I am also a realist. This may go down as another unresolved homicide, in which God will mete out whatever appropriate justice is required, in the end.

"But I’m not holding my breath that this case is now going to see any resolution in a Boulder County courtroom."

 

The genie is out of the bottle! And not very easy to put back!

 

"'There were so many more professional and discreet ways to investigate John Mark Karr,' said Craig Silverman, a former Denver deputy district attorney. 'He should have been transported to Sonoma County.'

When Karr was taken into custody in Thailand for immigration violations, he was wanted in northern California's Sonoma County on five misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography. Silverman said that Lacy could have worked with California officials to keep Karr there while she further investigated him."

Hey! I posted that TWO WEEKS AGO! I wonder if Silverman is reading here.

ST is, in every way, an absolute dream boat. :wave: