U.S. judge's Ramsey ruling questioned By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
April 25, 2003
BOULDER - The latest developments in the JonBenet Ramsey murder
case continue to ripple through the legal community.
On March 31, U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes ruled that evidence
supported the theory that an intruder killed the 6-year-old girl. A week
later, Boulder district attorney Mary Keenan endorsed the judge's
finding.
Carnes issued her 93-page ruling when she dismissed a libel-slander
lawsuit brought against the Ramseys by Boulder journalist Chris Wolf.
The Ramseys had written a book naming Wolf as a suspect in their
daughter's 1996 murder, and Wolf contended that the couple showed
malice because they allegedly knew Patsy Ramsey was the guilty party.
Carnes said Wolf and his lawyer didn't prove that JonBenet was killed by
her mother.
"As a legal matter, if plaintiff cannot prove, by clear and convincing
evidence that defendants committed this crime, he cannot demonstrate
that their statement concerning his status as a suspect were (sic) made
with the requisite malice," Carnes ruled.
But Carnes' ruling was based only on the facts presented by the
Ramseys and their lawyer, L. Lin Wood, and Wolf and his lawyer, Darnay
Hoffman - and not on a comprehensive review of investigators'
40,000-plus pages of evidence.
"The facts that were provided to the court were, in many cases, not
consistent with the facts that were developed in the criminal investigation
because the civil litigants understandably didn't have the resources
available to them that the police department did," said a source close to
the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In fact, two "facts" in the first five pages of Carnes' ruling don't agree
with police investigators' findings.
• On the fourth page, the judge writes that on the night of the murder
both JonBenet and her older brother fell asleep on the 11-block drive
home from a Christmas party at the home of Fleet and Priscilla White.
But investigators don't believe JonBenet's brother fell asleep on that
short drive.
• On the fifth page, Carnes refers to a scream coming from the Ramsey
home purportedly heard by a neighbor across the street, near the
presumed time of the murder. But that neighbor, Melody Stanton, has
long since recanted her story about the scream.
Critics of the Carnes ruling point more often to the failure of Hoffman,
Wolf's lawyer, to effectively challenge or counter Wood's assertions on
behalf of the Ramseys.
Carnes' ruling reveals at least 16 occasions in which the judge indicates
that a fact alleged by the Ramseys and their lawyer goes virtually
unchallenged by Hoffman.
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Recanted to WHO? I understand she told Charlie Brennan that she was confused - - maybe it had been another night, not the night of the murder at all.
Frankly, I don't buy it.
She was talking about it right after the murder - - talking about it to neighbors, cops, reporters. Years later she says NOW, letme think..... maybe I don't know.....
I think she wanted out of the media circus.
I don't think she lied in 1996 or 1997 - - I think she lied much later.
I wonder what Luther has to say about all this.
I wonder if the twin adult sons who were there that night might shed some light on what happened there.