Ramsey prosecutors defend Karr decision

estranged4life · #1 08-29-2006, 12:39 PM

'This guy confessed numerous occasions in great detail,' says deputy DA

BOULDER, Colo. - Prosecutors acknowledged Tuesday that they had no concrete evidence beyond the rambling confessions of John Mark Karr before they arrested him two weeks ago in the unsolved slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey.

A day after the case against Karr was dropped, District Attorney Mary Lacy and her team defended their decision to bring him to Colorado from halfway around the world on a jumbo jet, with champagne and pate for dinner.

Lacy said it is difficult to be sure about any suspect's claims because every bit of physical evidence in the case has been disclosed to the public over the past 10 years.

"This guy confessed numerous occasions in great detail," said Peter Maguire, a deputy district attorney. "He confessed in e-mails, he confessed in telephone conversations ... he admitted it to a police officer. This was a bizarre crime and the person who committed this crime acted in a bizarre way."

JonBenet's father found the little girl's body in the basement of their Boulder home on the day after Christmas 1996. For years, suspicion has focused on either an intruder or the girl's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey.

Karr, who in e-mails and telephone conversations expressed a fascination with JonBenet and Polly Klaas, a murdered California girl, said after his arrest in Thailand this month that he was with JonBenet at the time of her slaying, which he called an accident.

But DNA tests did not match Karr to material found on the girl's body. Prosecutors suggested in court papers that Karr was just a man with a twisted obsession who confessed to a crime he didn't commit.

Prosecutor takes responsibility
Lacy has been sharply criticized from Colorado's governor and others for detaining and arresting Karr. She acknowledged that and told reporters she has received citizen calls calling for her to be "tarred and feathered" and "run out of town." Republican Gov. Bill Owens said Lacy, a Democrat, "should be held accountable for the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history."

"The decisions were mine," Lacy said Tuesday. "The responsibility is mine and I should be held accountable for all decisions in this case."

Lacy, whose statement was briefly interrupted by a fire alarm at the courthouse, also said investigators surreptitiously took DNA samples from Karr from multiple locations before he was detained.

"We couldn't get his consent because he didn't know he was under investigation and we couldn't alert him at that time," she said.

Karr made some "pretty bizarre" claims in hundreds of pages of e-mail conversations with a Colorado professor, who alerted authorities to Karr's claims, Lacy said.

But she conceded that authorities were not able to confirm that Karr was in Boulder at the time of the slaying. Investigators said they felt sure of his whereabouts until Dec. 23, 1996, three days before the girl's body was found.

Karr was never formally charged in the slaying. In court papers, Lacy defended the decision to arrest him and bring him back to the United States for further investigation, saying he might have otherwise fled and may have been targeting children in Thailand.

Karr was being held at the Boulder jail until he can be sent to Sonoma County, Calif., to face misdemeanor child pornography charges dating to 2001. An extradition hearing was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

JonBenet's aunt, Pamela Paugh, said Tuesday that she wasn't terribly shocked to learn that Karr's public confession to being with JonBenet when she died didn't hold up.

"I think one of two things is going on: Either he is quite disturbed, and in that respect needs a lot of help and care, or he has perpetrated quite the fraud on the American public and the victims' families, and he needs help and a lot of care," Paugh told CBS' "The Early Show."

"For us, this isn't a story that ebbs and flows - this is real life. So we have to maintain a certain amount of calmness through anything that happens. Otherwise you can be on a rollercoaster every week of your life."

Karr had made graphic claims in a series of e-mails about JonBenet's killing, describing sexual acts with her, her death and writing at one point that he envisioned Johnny Depp playing him in a movie about how he killed JonBenet. He wrote that the movie would make $1 billion.

Lacy said Karr emerged as a suspect in April after he spent several years exchanging e-mails and 11 telephone calls with a University of Colorado journalism professor who had produced documentaries on the case.

The District Attorney's office released explicit details of statements Karr had made in those exchanges with professor Michael Tracey, who had alerted authorities. Karr told the professor he accidentally killed JonBenet during sex and tasted her blood after he injured her, prosecutors said.

"Are you asking me why I killed JonBenet? I don't see it that way," Karr wrote in a May 22 e-mail. "Her and I were engaging in a romantic and very sexual interaction. It went bad and it was my fault."

But the claims were lies, prosecutors said. The Denver crime lab conducted DNA tests Friday on a cheek swab taken from Karr and were unable to connect him to the crime.

"This information is critical because ... if Mr. Karr's account of his sexual involvement with the victim were accurate, it would have been highly likely that his saliva would have been mixed with the blood in the underwear," Lacy said in court papers.

She also said authorities found no evidence Karr was in Boulder at the time of the slaying. She said Karr's family provided "strong circumstantial support" for their belief that he was with them in Georgia, celebrating the holidays.

When Karr was arrested in Thailand, Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood pronounced it a vindication for JonBenet's parents. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June.

On Monday, the attorney said: "From day one, John Ramsey publicly stated that he did not want the public or the media to jump to judgment. He did not want the public or the media to engage in speculation, that he wanted the justice system to take its course."

Nate Karr, John Karr's brother, said he was elated his brother would not be charged. "We're just going to be celebrating with family," he said.

But Scott Robinson, a Denver attorney who has followed the case from the beginning, said Karr may be charged with lying about his role.

"Seems to me there should be some criminal consequences," he said. "He has cost the taxpayers an enormous amount of money."

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

strandinthewind · #2 08-29-2006, 12:41 PM

I agree they had no choice but to haul him in, esp. considering he had intimate knowledge of undisclosed facts and confessed.

Rickypt · #3 08-29-2006, 12:55 PM

If he knows so many intimate details, then why has he been released already? Just because the DNA doesn't match doesn't rule him out completely. Seems like if his knowledge was so compelling, it would be worth keeping him for some time and grilling him.

strandinthewind · #4 08-29-2006, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickypt

If he knows so many intimate details, then why has he been released already? Just because the DNA doesn't match doesn't rule him out completely. Seems like if his knowledge was so compelling, it would be worth keeping him for some time and grilling him.

Many think he knows these details because he relentlessly pursued just about everyone involved in the case and interviewed or questioned them.

The bottom line is his confession will not outweigh the following:

1. He said he poisoned her and no poison was found in her.

2. His ex (who does not really like him) seems to think he was in Alabama at the time.

3. The DNA, which was under her fingernails, usually a damning thing, does not match.

BTFLCHLD · #5 08-29-2006, 01:25 PM

Why didn't they draw a DNA sampling and ship that over for testing while he remained under arrest in Thailand? Instead it seems the government (I presume the state of Colorado) has undergone expenses that could well have been used to assist elsewhere but only went to further the perv's rock-off and dishearten the hopeful.

strandinthewind · #6 08-29-2006, 01:34 PM

I remember reading something regarding this and they could not take it Thailand for some reason.

DrummerDeanna · #7 08-29-2006, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I remember reading something regarding this and they could not take it Thailand for some reason.

I read the same thing - early on when he was still in Thailand - or right after he got back - I'll see if I can dig up an article- but right now I'm buried under tons and tons of JonBenet stuff...

Just my luck I move to a station in Boulder's listening area.

strandinthewind · #8 08-29-2006, 02:13 PM

D.A.: Karr really believes he killed JonBenet

BOULDER, Colorado (CNN) -- John Mark Karr believes he killed JonBenet Ramsey even though "he is not the killer," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said Tuesday.

In a news conference in Boulder, Lacy and staff members from the Boulder County district attorney's office addressed how DNA evidence released Monday showed Karr could not have committed the killing he confessed to when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, earlier this month.

The district attorney's office is closing its case against Karr.

"John Karr sincerely believes he killed JonBenet Ramsey, there's no question in his mind about that," Lacy said.

She said Karr still believes, even now, that he killed the young girl even though evidence points to someone else.

"The way he told the story (of how JonBenet died), the DNA would have been his and it was not," Lacy said. "He is not the killer."

Lacy said she has little sympathy for Karr because he "inserted himself" into the case.

Lacy said that investigators took surreptitious DNA samples in Bangkok from Karr, who said he was present in JonBenet's Boulder home when she died in December 1996. He called her death an accident.

DNA samples were taken from items that Karr touched as investigators kept him under surveillance in Bangkok, Lacy said, including from his bicycle, a cup he drank from and a tissue with which he wiped his hands.

However, she explained, experts in the case said that the sample found in the young girl's underwear was a mixed sample, as were the samples taken from Karr without his knowledge.

The experts wanted a clean sample from Karr and didn't want to compare a mixed sample with a mixed sample, she told reporters in a news conference about the case.

To get such a sample, they would have needed Karr's permission, and they didn't want to tip him off that he was under investigation, she said.

Karr claimed in e-mails to a journalism professor at the University of Colorado that he was involved in JonBenet's death.

Lacy has been sharply criticized from for detaining and arresting Karr.

"The decisions were mine," Lacy said Tuesday. "The responsibility is mine and I should be held accountable for all decisions in this case."

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/29/karr.da/index.html

DavidMn · #9 08-29-2006, 02:30 PM

I'm no legal expert, but it seems to me that this DA in Boulder wasted a colossal amount of money on a case that went nowhere.

SuzeQuze · #10 08-29-2006, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMn

I'm no legal expert, but it seems to me that this DA in Boulder wasted a colossal amount of money on a case that went nowhere.

Is that just hindsight though? Given the things he said, if I were that DA I might have brought him in too.

DrummerDeanna · #11 08-29-2006, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Is that just hindsight though? Given the things he said, if I were that DA I might have brought him in too.

Right. Some creepy guy who has many time over confessed to being with JonBenet when she died, knows details no one else does- when flat out asked if he's innocent he said, "no"

I mean there was other evidence there.

DavidMn · #12 08-29-2006, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

Right. Some creepy guy who has many time over confessed to being with JonBenet when she died, knows details no one else does- when flat out asked if he's innocent he said, "no"

I mean there was other evidence there.

Well, what I was thinking is, couldnt have they done the DNA testing over there under U.S Supervision?

DrummerDeanna · #13 08-29-2006, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMn

Well, what I was thinking is, couldnt have they done the DNA testing over there under U.S Supervision?

Ah. Well that is the question of the hour. And I think the DA addressed it - but the damn press conference is 1 and a half hours long - so I'm not going to sit through it right now

The DID take DNA from Karr in Bangkok - but they weren't clean samples - one was from a bike, the other from a cup - and since the DNA found in JonBenet's underwear (God I HATE typing that) was a mixed sample - they couldn't attempt to match it with a mixed sample, they needed a clean sample and to get that they needed Karr's permission - but he didn't know he was under investigation at that point.....

Now when he was finally obtained in Thailand I'm still unclear about why they couldn't take DNA at that point....but I'm sure it'll come up...

SuzeQuze · #14 08-29-2006, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrummerDeanna

Ah. Well that is the question of the hour. And I think the DA addressed it - but the damn press conference is 1 and a half hours long - so I'm not going to sit through it right now

The DID take DNA from Karr in Bangkok - but they weren't clean samples - one was from a bike, the other from a cup - and since the DNA found in JonBenet's underwear (God I HATE typing that) was a mixed sample - they couldn't attempt to match it with a mixed sample, they needed a clean sample and to get that they needed Karr's permission - but he didn't know he was under investigation at that point.....

Now when he was finally obtained in Thailand I'm still unclear about why they couldn't take DNA at that point....but I'm sure it'll come up...

It could just be not having the right equipment over there and possibly some obscure laws about obtaining such evidence outside of teh country?

I'm just guessing.

DrummerDeanna · #15 08-29-2006, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

It could just be not having the right equipment over there and possibly some obscure laws about obtaining such evidence outside of teh country?

I'm just guessing.

Yeah - that's what they're alluding to - different law etc - that's what she blames for the leak of his arrest in the first place - here there were no leaks to the media - or so she claims - but in Thailand they (of course) have different laws etc - so someone there leaked it (supposedly they-Boulder DA's Office- were trying to keep it all quiet).

Overall it's quite the mess...