News story started people thinking - but it was a lie.

[jameson245]

Ramsey call for probe gets little response
By Christopher Anderson
Camera Staff Writer

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A charge by attorneys for John and Patsy Ramsey that the investigation of JonBenét Ramsey's murder should itself be investigated appeared Friday to have little official impact.
Boulder police and the Boulder County District Attorney's office said they will not investigate the leak of a transcript from an audio-enhanced 911 tape. The tape reportedly reveals that on the morning JonBenét's body was found, her 10-year-old brother, Burke, was awake an hour earlier than the Ramseys told investigators.
Jim Carpenter, Gov. Roy Romer Romer's spokesman, said Friday that the governor had not heard the Ramseys' request, which was sent to media. Carpenter also said the governor has rejected former Ramsey friend Fleet White's call for a special prosecutor in the unsolved case.
In a harsh statement Thursday, Ramseys' attorneys said they had not seen a transcript of the tape, and they requested that a grand jury "investigate and indict those public officials, past and present, who have leaked every critical item of evidence in this investigation."
"The public officials who have responsibility for stopping these outrages have done nothing," the attorneys said.
Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said Friday he is confident that the source of the leak was not in his department and that it could have come from multiple sources.
He also said the Ramsey attorneys' angry letter and other criticism of the police department have lost their impact.
"This has been going on for so long that we hardly pay attention to it anymore," Beckner said.
JonBenét was found dead in the home of her parents' home Dec. 26, 1996. John and Patsy Ramsey, who said they found a ransom note claiming their daughter was kidnapped, have remained under "an umbrella of suspicion" by Boulder Police, but have consistently denied being responsible for their daughter's death. The couple has said the girl could have been killed by an intruder.
Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter announced this month that he will take the case to a grand jury. Michael Kane, a grand jury consultant to the district attorney on the JonBenét Ramsey investigation, will meet with FBI officials early next week in Quantico, Va., to discuss the investigation and grand jury-related matters, Hunter's spokeswoman, Suzanne Laurion, said Thursday.
Kane met with attorney Barry Scheck, hired by Hunter for his expertise in DNA evidence, on Aug. 7 at Colorado Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Denver. Scheck was a member of O.J. Simpson's defense team.
Concerns about leaks surfaced in September after the Ramsey ransom note was published by Vanity Fair magazine. But the police department decided against using polygraph tests on officers to investigate that and other leaks. The Boulder police union objected to polygraph tests.
Denver attorney Craig Silverman said he understood why the Ramseys were upset about 911 tape leak.
"It does a lot to destroy an intruder theory," Silverman said. "To me this is one of the first significant developments in the case, if this 911 tape is true. ... If it was an intruder, why would they mislead about Burke being up."
But Mimi Wesson, a University of Colorado law professor and former federal prosecutor, said the accumulation of "leaked" evidence, no matter the source, could give the Ramsey's a stronger argument for dismissal of the case or a change of venue. A cautious prosecutor is aware of this and does not divulge information "promiscuously," said Wesson.
Wesson also said it appears the Ramsey lawyers are taking a cue from independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Clinton, in which officials have attempted to use politics to turn the public against the prosecutor. "It's just an interesting strategy to get people to start talking about leaks ... and misconduct," Wesson said.

August 22, 1998

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[jameson245]

Ramsey 911 call tape shows contradictions

By Christopher Anderson
Camera Staff Writers

An audio-enhanced 911 tape reveals that JonBenét Ramsey's brother, Burke, was awake when his mother called police to report the little girl's kidnapping at 5:51 a.m.

That conflicts with the girl's parents' consistent statements to investigators that the boy was asleep until 7 a.m. — after police arrived at their home — sources close to the investigation said Thursday.

Those sources say enhancement of the tape reveals Burke's voice in the background, asking his parents "What did you find?" John Ramsey allegedly can be heard shouting to Burke, "We are not talking to you," and Patsy shouts "Oh my Jesus, oh my Jesus."

The statements were recorded after Patsy Ramsey mistakenly thought she had hung up the telephone after making the 911 call.

A full transcript of the tape is being printed today in this week's National Enquirer. The general content of the transcript in the supermarket tabloid is accurate, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

In response, Ramsey family attorneys suggested a grand jury that soon will begin hearing the case should also "investigate and indict those public officials, past and present, who have leaked every critical item of evidence in this investigation."

Spokeswomen for the Boulder police and the Boulder County District Attorney's Office would not comment on the 911 tape from Dec. 26, 1996. They have refused to release the tape, saying it is part of the homicide investigation.

Hours after JonBenét was reported kidnapped, her father and a family friend found the 6-year-old strangled and beaten to death in the basement of the family's home. The little girl's participation in beauty pageants, the family's wealth and the mystery surrounding her slaying attracted international media attention.

Although the Ramsey family insists an intruder killed their daughter, investigators have focused on John and Patsy Ramsey.

The Ramseys — who didn't agree to formal police interviews until almost four months after JonBenét's death and rejected subsequent police interviews — were questioned by prosecutors for almost three days in June. Sources say that in the June interviews, the parents continued to say their son was asleep until about an hour after police arrived to investigate the incident.

In a blistering attack on the investigation Thursday, attorneys for John and Patsy Ramsey accused "police sources" of leaking information critical to the case — but they did not deny that the 911 information was true.

"This vicious leak is one more example of the pattern of official misconduct, which has characterized this investigation in the past 19 months," John Ramsey's attorney, Hal Haddon, said in a press release. "Police leak what they claim is critical evidence and spin it against the Ramseys.

"We have repeatedly protested this criminal misconduct and have demanded that the cowards who continue to leak official information be investigated, disciplined and prosecuted."

Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant also attacked the leak, saying such evidence belongs only in the courtroom. Grant, one of four prosecutors advising Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter on the case, also remained firm in his opposition to the appointment of a special prosecutor in the case.

For a second time this year, Gov. Roy Romer last week rejected a request to appoint a special prosecutor after a Boulder police detective issued a scathing resignation letter accusing Hunter's office of favoring the Ramsey family in its investigation.

Burke's Atlanta attorney, Jim Jenkins, declined to comment on when the boy, then 9, was awake on the morning after the crime. He said Burke was thoroughly interviewed by the district attorney's office earlier this summer and answered questions fully.

"He certainly is not a suspect, and even the Boulder police have assured me he is not a suspect," Jenkins said.

The 911 tape reportedly was enhanced by Aerospace Corp., a southern California company that specializes in defense contracting but began doing work for law enforcement agencies in recent years.

Robert Pentz, director of the National Law Enforcement & Corrections Technology Center for the Western Region, operated by Aerospace Corp. for the National Institute of Justice, said the company had no comment on the tape.

"Even though we acknowledge the fact we do work for law enforcement agencies ... it is a matter of policy we don't comment on cases that are open without written permission of the affected law enforcement agency," Pentz said.

Since the El Segundo, Calif.-based National Law Enforcement & Corrections Technology Center was founded in 1994, it has worked on more than 500 forensic cases, including various types of video and audio exploitation, computer crime and other miscellaneous types of forensics work, Pentz said.

Daily Camera staff writer Julie Poppen contributed to this report.

August 21, 1998

[jameson245]

Reading these stories and watching what unfolded in the past 18 years, I have to say it is a shame Chris Anderson and other reporters were mislead by BORG informants from inside the investigation.

In the end, the 911 tape was released and we know the voice is only heard by those who WANT to hear it - - and the only words they can make out are those they were told to expect. Different BORG looking for those ghostly words tend to hear exactly what is on the transcript they are studying as they listen.

But reading the story, this quote stands out - - and it is a sad testimony of how burnt out LE got working this case.

From the article - - - He also said the Ramsey attorneys' angry letter and other criticism of the police department have lost their impact.
"This has been going on for so long that we hardly pay attention to it anymore," Beckner said.