Arndt to bring bid for suit's revival

Ex-detective scheduled to present case to appellate court next
week

By Matt Sebastian, Camera Staff Writer
September 18, 2002

DENVER — Former detective Linda Arndt will renew her bid next week to make the
city of Boulder pay for refusing to let her defend her professional reputation during
the JonBenet Ramsey investigation.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Tuesday in Arndt's
quest to revive her 1998 lawsuit that alleges a police department gag order violated
her First Amendment rights.

Arndt, blamed in some media accounts for bungling the Ramsey case, contends in her
lawsuit that former Police Chief Tom Koby and current Chief Mark Beckner refused to
let her clear her name.

"Linda is very serious about seeing this appeal through, particularly because of the
important First Amendment issues in the case," A. Bruce Jones, Arndt's attorney, said
Tuesday.

Attorneys representing Boulder and its police force declined to comment.
Spokeswoman Jennifer Bray said city officials "were pleased with how the judge
ruled last summer and are confident that there's no case here."

Arndt's appeal to the 10th circuit — one step removed from the U.S. Supreme Court —
is the first of two Ramsey-related First Amendment lawsuits on the appellate court's
docket this fall.

In November, the justices will consider District Attorney Mary Keenan's appeal of a
federal ruling last summer that struck down Colorado's law barring grand jury
witnesses from discussing their testimony.

That lawsuit was brought by Linda Hoffmann-Pugh, a former Ramsey housekeeper
who testified before a Boulder County grand jury investigating the Christmas 1996
slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet.

No arrests were ever made in the homicide case, although police have long said her
parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, are under suspicion in their daughter's beating and
strangulation death.

Arndt filed her lawsuit in May 1998, nearly a year before she resigned from the
department. The lawsuit did not specify the damages being sought, although Arndt
had requested $150,000 — the maximum allowed under law — from the city in an
earlier notice of claim.

Before trial last year, U.S. District Judge William F. Downes dismissed Arndt's
allegations that the police department painted her in a false light and that her state
constitutional rights were violated.

After two weeks of testimony, Downes ruled that Arndt had failed to prove that the
speech she wanted to exercise under the First Amendment could be considered a
matter of public concern.

The judge "properly concluded that the First Amendment does not require a police
department to hold or to allow one of its officers to hold a press conference to
address claimed media inaccuracies," the city's attorneys wrote in a brief to the
appellate court.

Arndt's attorneys, in their own filings, disagreed: "It was undisputed that the Ramsey
murder, and the failure of the Boulder Police Department investigation to achieve an
arrest, was of intense public interest."

According to court records, Arndt identified eight media statements that she claimed
were inaccurate, and for which she had sought permission from police supervisors to
deny publicly.

Those statements included allegations that Arndt disturbed evidence by covering
JonBenet's body with a sheet, that she "hacked" department computers and that she
blocked the FBI from entering the Ramsey house the morning JonBenet was reported
missing.

By not countering those allegations, Arndt "thus became the scapegoat for the lack of
success of the Ramsey investigation," her attorneys wrote in an appellate brief.

The city's attorneys point out that Arndt never sued any of the media outlets that
reported the allegedly false accusations. In fact, she acknowledged speaking to at
least three reporters in violation of her department's gag order.

Contact Matt Sebastian at (303) 473-1498 or sebastianm@dailycamera.com.

Arndt in court to clear name

Former Ramsey detective tries to revive lawsuit

By Matt Sebastian, Camera Staff Writer
September 25, 2002

DENVER — The future of Linda Arndt's lawsuit against the Boulder Police Department
hinges on a single question: Was the ex-detective's personal reputation a matter of
public concern during the JonBenet Ramsey investigation?

That was the issue argued Tuesday before a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals that is considering whether to revive Arndt's dismissed
lawsuit against her former supervisors.

Arndt, who quit the department in 1999, contends her First Amendment rights were
violated when police supervisors barred her from correcting media reports blaming
her for bungling the Ramsey case.

"Her conduct was a public concern here," A. Bruce Jones, Arndt's attorney, told the
judges. "This is a public accusation that has been made about her, about her
competence, about her competence as an officer, that in turn reflects on the integrity
of the Boulder Police Department, and that's a public concern."

The attorney representing Boulder countered that the former detective's desire to
clear her name was a private matter that did not outweigh the Police Department's
need to safeguard its investigation.

"The law enforcement concern to protect ongoing criminal investigations is
paramount," attorney Leslie L. Schluter told the judges.

Tuesday's half-hour oral arguments stuck purely to legal intricacies, rarely addressing
the facts surrounding the high-profile — and still unsolved — homicide. In fact, the
word "Ramsey" was uttered just once.

Arndt, who sat through the arguments, declined to comment. Boulder police Chief
Mark Beckner and former Chief Tom Koby, both named as defendants, did not attend.

The former detective sued her supervisors in 1998, alleging she was prevented from
correcting eight factual inaccuracies about her role as the lead investigator on the
Ramsey case.

Those media reports included allegations that Arndt disturbed physical evidence by
covering JonBenet's body with a sheet, that she "hacked" department computers and
that she blocked the FBI from entering the Ramsey house the morning the 6-year-old
was reported missing.

Last summer, a federal judge dismissed Arndt's lawsuit on the grounds that she had
failed to prove that the speech she wanted to exercise under the First Amendment
was of public concern.

The appellate judges gave little indication Tuesday which side they may favor, equally
grilling both attorneys on their respective arguments. The panel will issue a written
ruling, likely sometime next year.

Judge Terrence L. O'Brien questioned whether Arndt's request for a public refutation
of false media reports really would have quelled the overwhelming media interest in
the Christmas 1996 slaying.

"Do you really think that's the end of the controversy in newspapers and on cable
TV?" O'Brien asked.

On the other hand, the judges asked Boulder's attorney whether it was possible to
separate Arndt's personal reputation from that of the Police Department as a whole,
and the Ramsey investigation in particular.

"If she is alleged to have botched this murder investigation in some way, isn't that a
matter of public concern?" asked Judge Mary Beck Briscoe.

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