Case files subject of battle in $750M defamation suit
BOULDER» A highstakes battle is underway in Boulder courts, spurred by a $750 million defamation lawsuit, that could force police to turn over thousands of pages of investigative files on the unsolved murder of Jonbenet Ramsey.
Lawyers defending the lawsuit — brought by Jonbenet Ramsey’s brother, Burke, against CBS for a 2016 documentary that suggested he could be responsible for his 6yearold sister’s 1996 slaying — have issued subpoenas for vast numbers of files from the nearly 22year police investigation. Burke Ramsey’s lawyers also have made a far more limited request for investigative documents from the police.
The police department, through the office of the Boulder city attorney, is fighting to quash the subpoenas, stating that “the Boulder Police Department has two detectives assigned and continues to work diligently to solve the crime. Disclosure of police investigative files will adversely affect the investigation.”
The department also is seeking a protective order precluding discovery of its criminal investigative files, said to number now in excess of 60,000 pages.
Lawyers for CBS dismiss the potential harm to the beleaguered highprofile case, stating in a filing Friday that “no fewer than 37 books have been written about the case, including two books by the Ramseys themselves, and several by former law enforce
ment agents who directly investigated the case.”
The latest defense filing adds, “Suffice it to say that there are few, if any, criminal cases in the past half century that have garnered as much public attention and discussion.”
If police lose in their bid to protect their files as the Burke Ramsey defamation lawsuit proceeds slowly through the pretrial discovery process, it could provide the most detailed glimpse into the tortured history of one of the nation’s most notorious and enduring criminal mysteries of the modern era.
The ongoing litigation stems from the broadcast in September 2016 by CBS — as the 20year mark in the case approached — of the twopart, fourhour documentary “The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey.”
According to Burke Ramsey’s lawsuit, filed in 2016, the gist of the documentary is “that Burke Ramsey killed his 6yearold sister” and that such a claim is “false and defamatory per se: Burke Ramsey did not kill his sister and had no involvement in her brutal murder.”
Documents sought
Defendants in the lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court for Wayne County, Mich., are CBS, Critical Content and show participants Jim Clemente, Laura Richards, James Fitzgerald, Henry Lee, Werner Spitz and A. James Kolar, currently the town marshal in Telluride and formerly a Boulder district attorney’s investigator.
Jonbenet was found with a fractured skull and having been asphyxiated in the basement of the family’s Boulder home Dec. 26, 1996, several hours after Patsy Ramsey called 911 to report discovery of a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her child’s safe return.
The initial subpoena for Boulder police records, by lawyers for Burke Ramsey — who was 9 at the time of his sister’s Christmas night 1996 slaying — was issued in June this year and was limited in what it sought.
Although Burke Ramsey’s lawyers subsequently narrowed the scope of their subpoena to evidence concerning the presence of Burke Ramsey’s fingerprint on a bowl of pineapple — her small intestine may have contained fragments of the fruit at autopsy — the city nevertheless fought it. The city argued that the chance of interfering with “an ongoing homicide investigation outweighs any potential relevance of the information sought.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for the defense had their own list of documents they wanted out of the police to help them defend the case, and they served subpoenas in July on the department, and also in August on former District Attorney Alex Hunter. On Aug. 24, lawyers for CBS and their codefendants amended their subpoena to police, more than doubling what they hoped to get their hands on.
The 31item list of what the CBS lawyers are looking for includes, but is not limited to all DNA reports and related case communications prepared by the Bode Technology forensic labo ratory, all documents prepared by former Coroner John Meyer, all handwriting analysis, all communications relating to the possible use of a stun gun, documents relating to fecal matter found smeared on items in Jonbenet’s bedroom, materials relating to the analysis of other evidence found in Jonbenet’s bedroom, and reports pertaining to what was found in the child’s digestive system.
List “excessive”
In a filing by Burke Ramsey’s lawyers that seeks to block a defense bid to consolidate legal proceedings relating to the disputed subpoenas, they state that the CBS lawyers “misrepresent the actual scope of document that Burke seeks.”
The CBS lawyers’ subpoena to Hunter, who declined to prosecute grand jury indictments in the case returned against both of Jonbenet’s parents, is similarly broad in scope.
The Hunter subpoena wants all documents relating to an affidavit Hunter gave stating that through the end of his tenure, Burke Ramsey was never a suspect; all his communications with Jonbenet’s parents, as well as a “all documents relating to (the) death of Jonbenet.” Hunter has since moved to quash that subpoena.
Prominent Denver criminal defense lawyer Dan Recht has followed the Ramsey case across the years.
“The defendants’ laundry list of requested documents appears excessive. And I would guess the judge would view it as excessive, and quash at least significant portions of the subpoena,” Recht said.