Folks, lately I've been hammering the fact that the previous DA's judgment is not to be trusted, but I haven't really gotten anywhere. Finally, I realized the only recourse left to me was to lay it out in black and white. This should, ideally, serve as a reminder for newbies and veterans alike.
Here we go. Listening to some, you'd get the idea that the DA's office has been a paragon of objectivity and legal restraint. Well, I guess it's best to make up your own minds. I quote from chapter seven in the book:
The McReynolds's were cleared early on by the police, but the DA's office was convinced he was their best bet. Mary Lacy had wanted to go after "Santa" Bill McReynolds from day one. She was biased in the favor of the Ramseys because of their status. She has so much as said so. Lacy is known as a radical feminist who lets her belief in women's innocence cloud her reason.
Before anyone accuses me of making that up, that bit of information comes from Boulder news columnist Frank Coffman, who worked for Lacy's campaign in 2000 until he realized just what kind of person she was. According to his conversations with her, she felt from the beginning that because PR did not fit the "profile" of a killer mom, she couldn't be it.
It got WORSE from there:
According to Coffman, she actually chastised Tom Haney for being too tough on Patsy during the '98 interviews. WHAT?! Number one, Haney was using by-the-book techniques. Two, if you look at the tape, he's being perfectly calm! No threats, no intimidation. He's very calmly giving her a chance to explain the evidence. Patsy is the one cursing and jumping around and acting like she's got a scorpion in her panties! What was LACY watching?! Tom Haney is one of the finest homicide detectives in the entire Rocky Mountain area, if not the country. His record speaks for itself. And here's this assistant DA, who at that time I don't think had ever tried a murder case in her entire career, and to my knowledge still hasn't, telling him he was too tough for using absolutely STANDARD interrogation techniques that the greenest rookie on the beat would know! Haney's general feeling was, "who the h*** does she think SHE is?"
As Det. Thomas wrote in his book, later on, she had the unmitigated gall to tell the cops that because they were men, they couldn't understand a woman's mindset. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! That may or may not be true, but it's a hell of a way to decide guilt or innocence!
Her major contribution to the case came after Patsy Ramsey's funeral, which she attended, in a shocking display of unprofessionalism. In August of 2006, Mary Lacy announced that the killer of JonBenet had been found. His name was John Mark Karr. By the time he was back in the US, his relatives had established he was nowhere near Boulder, his story had collapsed, and Mary Lacy was on the defensive. She shouldn't have been, because this should not have happened. Her conduct violated the most basic elements of procedure that a first-year law student would know. It was clear to many that she was a pro-Ramsey partisan and was trying to give them a gift. There should have been a recall election. She should have been forced to resign. The case should have been taken over by capable professionals. But none of that happened, because after ten years nobody cared. Journalist Jeff Shapiro writes, "It's no secret that in 1997, when Lacy was a sex-assault prosecutor under then-DA Alex Hunter, she was furious when he did not appoint her to work on the case. Because Hunter and the police shied away from the intruder theory, many law enforcement officials often wonder if Lacy's attempts to prove them wrong are driven more by her personal feelings than by the actual pursuit of justice."
Skipping over how she wound up with the case, which deserves a thread in its own right, once she had it, she made absolutely no attempt to even contact any of the original investigators, she brought in a whole new team consisting of people totally loyal to her point of view, including private investigators paid by the Ramseys, not to find the killer, but, as John admitted in his court deposition, to build a defense and keep him and Patsy out of jail. Alex Hunter was a lousy DA, but at least he'd hear all sides. Lacy refuses to even talk to people who think the Ramseys might have been involved. That kind of "investigation" may fly in places like the Soviet Union or Zimbabwe or North Korea, but this is America, and we're supposed to be better than that. Mary Lacy reminds me of that line from Paul Simon's song "The Boxer," the one about how the man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. Former Grand Jury prosecutor Michael Kane has publicly questioned Lacy's knowledge of the case, saying that he isn't sure she's even read the case file.
THIS is why I keep reminding people not to take the clearing of the Rs at face value.
If ANYONE would like to try and defend this, be my guest.
Here we go. Listening to some, you'd get the idea that the DA's office has been a paragon of objectivity and legal restraint. Well, I guess it's best to make up your own minds. I quote from chapter seven in the book:
The McReynolds's were cleared early on by the police, but the DA's office was convinced he was their best bet. Mary Lacy had wanted to go after "Santa" Bill McReynolds from day one. She was biased in the favor of the Ramseys because of their status. She has so much as said so. Lacy is known as a radical feminist who lets her belief in women's innocence cloud her reason.
Before anyone accuses me of making that up, that bit of information comes from Boulder news columnist Frank Coffman, who worked for Lacy's campaign in 2000 until he realized just what kind of person she was. According to his conversations with her, she felt from the beginning that because PR did not fit the "profile" of a killer mom, she couldn't be it.
It got WORSE from there:
According to Coffman, she actually chastised Tom Haney for being too tough on Patsy during the '98 interviews. WHAT?! Number one, Haney was using by-the-book techniques. Two, if you look at the tape, he's being perfectly calm! No threats, no intimidation. He's very calmly giving her a chance to explain the evidence. Patsy is the one cursing and jumping around and acting like she's got a scorpion in her panties! What was LACY watching?! Tom Haney is one of the finest homicide detectives in the entire Rocky Mountain area, if not the country. His record speaks for itself. And here's this assistant DA, who at that time I don't think had ever tried a murder case in her entire career, and to my knowledge still hasn't, telling him he was too tough for using absolutely STANDARD interrogation techniques that the greenest rookie on the beat would know! Haney's general feeling was, "who the h*** does she think SHE is?"
As Det. Thomas wrote in his book, later on, she had the unmitigated gall to tell the cops that because they were men, they couldn't understand a woman's mindset. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! That may or may not be true, but it's a hell of a way to decide guilt or innocence!
Her major contribution to the case came after Patsy Ramsey's funeral, which she attended, in a shocking display of unprofessionalism. In August of 2006, Mary Lacy announced that the killer of JonBenet had been found. His name was John Mark Karr. By the time he was back in the US, his relatives had established he was nowhere near Boulder, his story had collapsed, and Mary Lacy was on the defensive. She shouldn't have been, because this should not have happened. Her conduct violated the most basic elements of procedure that a first-year law student would know. It was clear to many that she was a pro-Ramsey partisan and was trying to give them a gift. There should have been a recall election. She should have been forced to resign. The case should have been taken over by capable professionals. But none of that happened, because after ten years nobody cared. Journalist Jeff Shapiro writes, "It's no secret that in 1997, when Lacy was a sex-assault prosecutor under then-DA Alex Hunter, she was furious when he did not appoint her to work on the case. Because Hunter and the police shied away from the intruder theory, many law enforcement officials often wonder if Lacy's attempts to prove them wrong are driven more by her personal feelings than by the actual pursuit of justice."
Skipping over how she wound up with the case, which deserves a thread in its own right, once she had it, she made absolutely no attempt to even contact any of the original investigators, she brought in a whole new team consisting of people totally loyal to her point of view, including private investigators paid by the Ramseys, not to find the killer, but, as John admitted in his court deposition, to build a defense and keep him and Patsy out of jail. Alex Hunter was a lousy DA, but at least he'd hear all sides. Lacy refuses to even talk to people who think the Ramseys might have been involved. That kind of "investigation" may fly in places like the Soviet Union or Zimbabwe or North Korea, but this is America, and we're supposed to be better than that. Mary Lacy reminds me of that line from Paul Simon's song "The Boxer," the one about how the man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. Former Grand Jury prosecutor Michael Kane has publicly questioned Lacy's knowledge of the case, saying that he isn't sure she's even read the case file.
THIS is why I keep reminding people not to take the clearing of the Rs at face value.
If ANYONE would like to try and defend this, be my guest.