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+--- Thread: lawsuit news (/showthread.php?tid=822)
lawsuit news - jameson245 - 05-08-2017
National News Briefs; Ramseys and Tabloid Settle JonBenet Lawsuit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MARCH 9, 2001
John and Patsy Ramsey have settled a lawsuit against a supermarket tabloid over articles that suggested that their son, Burke, had molested and killed his sister, JonBenet.
Meanwhile today, the Ramseys' former housekeeper, Linda Hoffmann-Pugh, sued the couple in Atlanta, asserting that their book falsely named her as a suspect in the 1996 death of JonBenet. No one has been charged in the case.
Terms of the settlement with the tabloid, The Globe, were not disclosed, The Daily Camera newspaper of Boulder reported today.
RE: lawsuit news - jameson245 - 06-06-2017
1997 lawsuits
1997 lawsuits
01-13-1997
Boulder County
Stolen Photos
Globe
Temporary restraining order
Globe agreed to return crime scene photos
01-30-1997
Boulder County
Chris Wolf
Refused to give hand writing Sample
1/2 Hr Jail
02-10-1997
Boulder County Jay Elowsky Felony Menacing (Bat,- reporters)
07-01-1997
2 weeks jail
1 yr probation
02-21-1997
Boulder County
Stolen Photos
Brett Sawyer
Misdemeanor Obstruction
64hrs Community Service
3 days jail
02-21-1997
Boulder County
Stolen Photos
Shawn Smith
Misdemeanor Obstruction
False reporting
64hrs Community Service
3 days jail
05-22-1997
Colorado
JT Colfax
Theft
JonBenet Morgue Log
2 Yrs Jail
Released 07-14-1999
06-10-1997
Larry Mason
John Eller
Internal Complaint
False Accusations 12-09-1997
$10,000.00 paid
06-19-1997
Colorado
JT Colfax
Arson 15th Street Boulder Co.
2 Yrs Jail
Released 07-14-1999
12-09-1997
Darney Hoffman
Alex Hunter
Force charges on Ramseys
Dismissed
12-30-1997
12-16-1997
Daily Camera
Alli Krupski
Theft
Complaint Dismissed
03-22-1999
12-16-1997
Boulder County
Alli Krupski
Restraining Order
RE: lawsuit news - jameson245 - 06-06-2017
1998 lawsuits
01-08-1998
Boulder County Alli Krupski
Document Theft .
02-03-1998
Steven Miles v John Ramsey and The Enquirer
Libel
Dismissed 12-21-1998
Slander 02-03-1999
04-10-1998
Alli Krupski Daily Camera
Defamation
Invasion
of privacy 03-25-1999
$115,000
Settlement
05-19-1998
Linda Arndt
Mark Beckner
Tom Koby
City Boulder
Dismissed
06-11-2001
.
09-16-1998
Boulder County
Don Van Wie
Criminal Mischief (shoved ABC cameraman)
Harassment and Disorderly Conduct
1 yr deferred prosecution
$8,516 Restitution
10-16-1998
Lincoln County Randy Simons
Indecent Exposure
Psychiatric Evaluation and Released
RE: lawsuit news - jameson245 - 06-06-2017
Send in the Clowns
Thursday, October 14, 1999 at 4 a.m.
By Patricia Calhoun
The circus is back in town, transforming Boulder into a bigtop stuffed with big-time media stars. They'll be in the center ring, fighting for interviews and airtime, until Boulder's grand jury finally disbands on October 20, thirteen months after it began investigating the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. The grand jurors may even issue an indictment before they pull their disappearing act.
But in the meantime, there's been a never- ending side-show of arrests, indictments and sordid accusations. Over the past 33 months, the justice system has been stuffing a funny car full of clowns only peripherally involved with the Ramsey case. And next Monday, a fourteenth passenger may be taken for a ride.
On October 18, Craig Lewis, the news editor of the Globe, will have another day in court. That's when the ten-day restraining order handed down by buttinsky U.S. District Judge Walker Miller expires and a Jefferson County grand jury can again consider indicting Lewis, not just for bribery, but also extortion. His alleged crimes? Trying to buy a copy of the Ramsey ransom note in the spring of 1997 (a document that since has received more public scrutiny than Pamela Anderson Lee's breasts), as well as attempting to strong-arm then-Boulder police officer Steve Thomas into an interview. If Lewis's attorney does not succeed in convincing the court that the Colorado bribery statute is unconstitutional -- or at least not applicable to an editor exercising his First Amendment rights, even if he's doing so for a supermarket tabloid -- Lewis could be charged criminally. Not, however, for murder. So far, no one has suggested that Craig Lewis killed JonBenét.
Shawn Smith thought he was aiding the cops -- or so he said -- when the hapless photo-lab technician agreed to help a buddy get his hands on copies of JonBenét autopsy photos made at his lab (high-tech security setup courtesy of the Boulder Police Department). As thanks for his efforts, Smith received $200 from the former sheriff's deputy turned private eye who sent the pictures to the Globe and, ultimately, a record for obstructing government operations and false reporting. Smith was later popped again, this time for indecent exposure after he passed out naked beside a popular Boulder County running path. Still, so far no one has suggested that Shawn Smith killed JonBenét.
Smith's partner in grime was Brett Sawyer, a former deputy with the Boulder County sheriff's office. In February 1997 Sawyer pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction of government operations and was sentenced to 64 hours of community service, as well as writing a letter of apology to the Ramseys. "When I learned of the sheriff's investigation," Sawyer wrote Westword a year later, "I immediately came forth to disclose that in obtaining the photographs, there had been no crime committed. Silly me -- I expected [Sheriff] George Epp and [District Attorney] Alex Hunter to acknowledge the absence of a criminal act and return to more mundane pursuits, such as solving the real crime: JonBenét Ramsey's murder. Alas, it was not to be. Someone needed hanging, and I was convenient gallows ballast." Still, so far no one has suggested that Brett Sawyer killed JonBenét.
More material considered suitable for hanging -- or at least jailing -- by Boulder authorities was J.T. Colfax, a driver for local mortuaries who'd already gotten in trouble for taking photographs of corpses. But his big break came when he snatched a page with JonBenét's name on it from the log book at the Boulder County morgue and then sent a few burning papers through the mail slot at the Ramseys' Boulder home. After pleading guilty to attempted first-degree arson, Colfax was sentenced to two years in the Boulder County Jail, an ideal set for an erstwhile performance artists. Colfax was recently released from jail, his time served before the grand jury was even close to serving up an indictment. And while a few people have suggested that J.T. Colfax might have killed JonBenét, he worked harder to solve the case from inside the jail than many of those outside.
Randy Simons, another shutterbug, did a studio shoot of pageant princess JonBenét in June 1996; after her murder, he sold the glamour shots for a paltry $7,500. His only motivation, he said at the time, was gaining exposure that would lead to the arrest of her killer. Instead, Simons himself was overexposed last October and held by police after they caught him walking naked down the streets of his hometown of Genoa, Colorado. Still, so far no one has suggested that Randy Simons killed JonBenét.
(Photography is a hazardous occupation, at least when connected to the Ramsey case: Boulder photographer Stephen Miles, who was arrested for possessing photographs of naked teenage boys in the late Eighties, was labeled as John Ramsey's major suspect in the October 21, 1997, National Enquirer -- a story that landed the tabloid a libel suit.)
And then, of course, there was Jay Elowsky, owner of Pasta Jay's restaurant and a friend of the Ramseys who put John and Patsy up in the early days after JonBenét's murder. In July 1997, Elowsky pled guilty to misdemeanor menacing: He'd brandished a baseball bat at two men he thought were reporters on Patsy's tail but who turned out to be mild-mannered engineers. Had the hapless victims actually been reporters, no jury in the land would have convicted Elowsky.
But Elowsky got his: This summer, John Gardiner, a homeless man who was working at Pasta Jay's, attacked Elowsky with a knife, accusing him of being somehow involved in JonBenét's murder. Gardiner was charged with second-degree felony assault, the most significant charge yet to emerge from the case -- in Boulder, at least. Still, so far no one has suggested that Jay Elowsky or John Gardiner killed JonBenét.
When the Boulder County grand jury finally charged with investigating JonBenét's murder first convened in September 1998, Don Van Wie expressed many Boulderites' hostility to the intense media presence by shoving an ABC News photographer. And while no jury would have convicted Van Wie, either, he accepted a one-year deferred prosecution. Which means that if he behaves himself for a year, his record will be clear. And so far, no one has suggested that Don Van Wie killed JonBenét.
Another one-year deferred prosecution went to former Globe reporter Jeffrey Shapiro, who'd been cited for harassment after he pursued a Ramsey-related interview subject with too much enthusiasm back in 1997. More First Amendment fervor was displayed this summer by Boulder gadflies Evan Ravnitz (also known as "Evan From Heaven") and Bob MacFarland, who tried to send copies of local author Steven Singular's Presumed Guilty to members of the grand jury, violating the law in the process. Still, no one has suggested that any of these three killed JonBenét (although Shapiro's recent essay in the Denver Post on media ethics slaughtered all logic).
Jefferson County has been putting on its own show, of which the anti-Lewis antics are only the most recent act. Earlier this summer, private investigators James and Regana Rapp were each charged with two counts of racketeering for illegally obtaining information about such high-profile people as John and Patsy Ramsey; a hearing on the validity of those indictments is set for October 15 in Jefferson County. They may have pilfered medical documents relating to Calista Flockhart's eating habits, but so far, no one has suggested that either Rapp killed JonBenét.
The same Jeffco grand jury also indicted retired Boulder attorney Thomas Miller with commercial bribery; he allegedly worked as a broker for the Globe on the ransom-note deal. And although trafficking with a tabloid may be punishable by death in Boulder, so far no one has suggested that Thomas Miller killed JonBenét.
Within the next few days, the Boulder County grand jury will either indict someone for JonBenét's murder or simply fold its tent -- in which case, with only two friends of the Ramseys, a Santa Claus wannabe and John Ramsey's older son officially cleared, just shy of six billion people will be left under Boulder's umbrella of suspicion.
RE: lawsuit news - jameson245 - 06-06-2017
1999 lawsuits
06-10-1999
Jay Elowsky
John Gardiner
2nd Degree Felony Assault .(John stabbed Jay)
06-24-1999
Colorado James Rapp
Two counts of Racketeering
Sentenced
01-20-2000
100 days jail
4 yr probation
06-24-1999
Colorado v Regana Rapp
Two counts of Racketeering
2 Yr Deferred
Sentence
08-05-1999
Boulder County Evan Ravitz
Sent the GJ copies of book by Stephen Singular
Presumed Guilty
08-05-1999
Warning
Stay away
From GJ
08-05-1999
Boulder County Bob MacFarland
Sent the GJ copies of book by Stephen Singular
Presumed Guilty
08-05-1999
Warning
Stay away
From GJ
08-20-1999
Colorado v Tom Miller
One Count of Commercial Bribery
Aquitted
06-14-2001
11-30-1999
Burke Ramsey and parents
Star
Libel Charge
Settled
05-21-2000
12-20-1999
Colorado v Craig Lewis
Bribery Extortion 11-08-2000
$100,000 to
Colorado Journalism School
RE: lawsuit news - jameson245 - 06-06-2017
2000 lawsuits
05-08-2000
Burke Ramsey and Parents
Time Warner
Libel Charge
settled
05-08-2000
Burke Ramsey and Parents
New York Post
Libel Charge
settled
05-09-2000
Chris Wolf
John Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey
Libel
Slander
dismissed
05-11-2000
Burke Ramsey and Parents
Globe
Libel Charge
Settled
05-08-2001
05-20-2000
Burke Ramsey and Parents
Windsor House
Dwight Wallington
Libel Charge
settled
08-03-2000
Fleet White and Pricilla White
Daily Camera
Criminal Libel Charges
Dismissed
06-05-2001
08-04-2000
Linda Pugh
Alex Hunter
First Amendment Rights Relief
dismissed
RE: lawsuit news - jameson245 - 06-06-2017
03-05-2001
Linda Pugh
John Ramsey Patsy Ramsey
Libel
Slander
dismissed
03-15-2001
New York Post
Mary Keenan
Subpoena All Documents
On JBR Case
03-29-2001
John Ramsey Patsy Ramsey
Steve Thomas and his publisher
Libel Charge
settled
04-16-2001
Linda Pugh
Mary Keenan
GJ Secrecy
Unconstitutional
05-03-2001
Jefferson County
Fleet White
Contempt of Court in Miller Trial
Bench warrant Vacated
06-13-2001
Jefferson County
Fleet White
Comtempt of Court
Miller Trial
Re-scheduled
Thursday
July 19, 2001
06-13-2001
Jefferson County
Steve Thomas
Comtempt of Court Miller Trial
Re-scheduled
July 16, 2001
06-15-2001
Burke Ramsey and Parents
Court TV
Libel Charge
settled