Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Interesting news story
#2
And another -

PART ONE

Lawyer struggles to regain license

By B.J. Plasket
The Daily Times-Call

BOULDER - Forty-four-year-old Walter Leon Hill has been a lot of
things in his life.
A naval intelligence officer.
A deputy district attorney.
A federal prosecutor.
A part-Choctaw American Indian activist.
A prominent Boulder attorney known for his straight, dark,
shoulder-length hair and his penchant for taking on unpopular people
and causes - including American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, who
is serving a life term in Leavenworth, Kan., for killing a federal
agent.
But he's also been known as a guy who can't say no to a needy client
and one who takes on more work than he can handle. Nancy J. Krebs fit that profile when Hill met her in early 2000, not long before allegations from the 37-year-old California woman stirred up the stagnating investigation of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.
Hill took on Krebs as a client when she first came forward with
claims she had been molested as a child by a group of wealthy
individuals that included members of the family of Fleet Russell
White Jr., the reported former best friend of John Ramsey.
Little did Hill know that his involvement with Krebs, the Ramsey
case and Fleet White would be the first of a series of eerily
spiraling events that have left a once articulate, charismatic and
extremely bright lawyer penniless and homeless.
Hill said his deterioration began with an auto accident in June
2000, just weeks after he represented Krebs while she was in Boulder
to share her story. The wreck, which he still terms "suspicious,"
left him with a compound wrist fracture and a head trauma, injuries
that required prescription sedatives, painkillers and anti-seizure
medication.
According to Hill, his law practice began to suffer soon after the
accident, with the injuries and medication leaving him unable to
represent clients.
From there, Hill's life and career descended further. He neglected
cases, lost his license and now faces the possibility of prison time
due to domestic violence and restraining order violation charges.
Hill claims that because of his involvement with a brief but
sensational part of the Ramsey case, Boulder police, the Boulder
County Dstrict Attorney's Office and White all contributed to his
downfall.

Criminal libel
Since Krebs' arrival in Boulder in early 2000, White has obsessively
thrown himself into the Ramsey investigation, setting up an
inevitable head-on collision with Lee Hill.
He has filed several unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to prosecute
media entities on criminal libel charges for their reporting of
Krebs' allegations, and in fact he was sentenced to 30 days in the
Jefferson County Jail after ignoring a subpoena to appear as a
defense witness in a bribery trial in November 2001.
In August 2000, White filed a complaint with Boulder police asking
that a dozen media outlets and reporters be charged with criminal
libel for reporting Krebs' allegations of sexual assault by members
of the White family.
Two years later, in a successful suit filed to obtain copies of
Krebs' statements to police, White said that Krebs "falsely reported
to the Boulder police that she had been a victim of serious and
violent crimes committed by members of the (White) family,"
including himself.


After receiving a 600-page investigative report from Boulder police,
then-District Attorney Alex Hunter sought a special prosecutor to
review the libel allegations. District Judge Roxanne Bailin
appointed Pueblo District Attorney Gus Sandstrom to review the case
but pulled the plug on the investigation after receiving a letter
from White in which he criticized the appointment of Sandstrom and
asked Bailin to conduct the investigation properly or "not at all."
White appealed Bailin's order to the Colorado Court of Appeals, but
the appeal was rejected. He later asked the Colorado Attorney
General's Office to launch a special prosecution but was turned
down.
White again sought criminal charges against the media after Mary
Keenan took office as Boulder County's district attorney. A second
investigation - this one by El Paso County District Attorney Jeanne
Smith - was launched in 2002. Smith's office eventually declined to
file charges against media entities or Krebs. The Whites in February
filed an action asking Smith's office to show cause why charges were
not filed, but that action was dismissed when Fleet White failed to
show up for a hearing and his wife, Priscilla White, told Bailin she
had nothing to say in the matter.
Earlier this month, White filed an appeal of Smith's decision.
White this month also filed a motion to compel Keenan to file grand
jury-secrecy violations against unnamed individuals in connection
with the grand jury that investigated JonBenet's death.
While Hill spent only a few months representing Krebs, the events of
the previous two years came full circle in the summer of 2002 when
the paths of Hill, White, the Boulder Police Department and the
Boulder County District Attorney's Office crossed again. This time,
however, the focus was not on JonBenet Ramsey but on Hill.
The People vs. Lee Hill
Hill openly admits that he takes on more work than he can handle, is
sometimes unorganized and almost always late to appointments.
"I can't argue with those characterizations of me," he admitted.
Lee Hill is used to being thought of as an eccentric but talented
rebel. On Aug. 2, 2002, he became something he had never been before
- a criminal defendant who claims he is being railroaded for his
ties to the Ramsey case.
Police were called to the north Boulder home of Lee Hill and his
wife, Bonnie, just after 10 p.m. that night, minutes after she
called police to say her husband attacked her and held a gun to her
head. Lee Hill was arrested on charges of menacing with a deadly
weapon, a felony, and third-degree assault/domestic violence, a
misdemeanor.
Police took him to jail, and Bonnie Hill was taken - against her
will, she claims - to an area safehouse for women.
Bonnie Hill now says it was she who, during an episode brought on by
untreated depression, attacked her husband, who was bleeding when
police arrived. Lee Hill says he was merely trying to subdue his
enraged wife as she angrily dumped out boxes that had been packed
for a move and that he picked up the gun only to keep it away from
her.


Keep reading
Reply


Messages In This Thread
Interesting news story - by jameson245 - 08-05-2017, 03:21 PM
RE: Interesting news story - by jameson245 - 08-05-2017, 03:25 PM
RE: Interesting news story - by jameson245 - 08-05-2017, 03:26 PM
RE: Interesting news story - by jameson245 - 08-05-2017, 03:27 PM

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)