I can elaborate on it 'til the cows come home, runsdeep! It's a sordid and somewhat infuriating tale, a disturbing illustration of just how much power the Haddon law firm wields in Colorado.
Here goes: in mid-1997, Craig Lewis, the GLOBE news editor--if you could call him that--hatched a scheme to buy a copy of the ransom note. The plan was to offer Don Vacca, a Ramsey-hired handwriting expert, a sum of money in exchange for a copy. He hired a local attorney named Thomas Miller (hereafter known as Tom Miller) under false pretenses and put his plan into action. The meeting went down, Lewis made his offer, and Vacca rejected it. Vacca went to the authorities and demanded action, but the Jefferson County DA blew it off. I'm not really sure why; maybe they figured it wasn't worth pursuing.
Well, by the end of that year, Miller, who was also a handwriting expert well-respected in the Colorado court system, got the materials legit and made his conclusion as to who wrote it: Patsy Ramsey.
Here's where it gets interesting. Eventually, word leaked up to Hal Haddon, the senior partner in Haddon, Forman and Morgan, the Ramseys' lawyers. Haddon was friends with Dave Thomas, the Jefferson County DA, and apparently called in a favor. The favor was that, after two full years of the JC DA saying that it wasn't worth pursuing, Lewis and Miller were arrested and charged with commercial bribery, with Lewis getting slapped with extortion to boot.
Miller was puzzled as to why he got hauled in on this beef.
It soon became apparent that HE was the real target all along, not Lewis. He saw the handwriting on the wall when he saw how different the plea deals that they were offered were. Lewis got a sweetheart offer: if the GLOBE agreed to make a donation of $100,000 to the University of Colorado, Boulder journalism school, he'd be free and clear. The donation was made, and Craig Lewis walked free that very day. (I wonder why they were so specific on THAT particular school receiving the money. I'm sure that it's just a coincidence that it's the same school where Michael Tracey is tenured!:crazy
Miller's offer was substantially different. No self-respecting man could accept the terms of the deal he was offered. The deal was that Miller would go free IF he voluntarily gave up his law license and personally repudiated his own handwriting credentials. He told them to stuff their deal.
So, he went to trial. During the trial, his lawyer called to the witness stand a man named David Williams. David Williams was a private investigator employed by Hal Haddon's law firm. Williams admitted on the witness stand that he and several other private investigators had been ordered by Hal Haddon himself to find "dirt" on Miller, something that would bring his credibility as a handwriting expert into question.
Why did they do this? Well,
according to Williams, Haddon was afraid that Miller might be called to testify against Patsy Ramsey if the Rs were ever brought to trial. So, Williams and the others were dispatched to pry into his private and professional life, searching for any kind of professional breach of ethics or illegal act, anything that could be used to give a jury reason not to believe him. When they couldn't find one, they decided to MAKE one. Thus, the request to Dave Thomas to bring charges against him. It was a despicable instance of the political cronyism that ruined this case.
When it was all said and done, it took the jury less than one hour of deliberations to set Miller free. SOME justice prevailed, I guess.
Right now, you're probably asking, "how do you know all of this, SD?" Well, the answer is that I actually have a transcript of the Miller trial. Williams was not the only person from Team Ramsey called as a witness. Pat Foreman, Haddon's partner, was another. He corroborated Williams' statements.
It's scary that the Haddon law firm wields that kind of unchecked power.