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Several of their attorneys believed that Simons had the opportunity to commit the crime and had access to JonBenét. He also had no real alibi for that night. The police, they felt, hadn’t investigated him thoroughly. If the case ever went to trial, the attorneys thought, Simons’ background and bizarre behavior after the crime might be enough to sway a jury to reasonable doubt about the Ramseys’ guilt.

Then there was Fleet White. The Ramseys’ team hadn’t spent a lot of time investigating him as a possible suspect, but they thought the police had manipulated White by telling him that Ramsey had named him as a possible suspect. The police had used this strategy with several witnesses—told them that the Ramseys were accusing them, which caused the witnesses to turn on the Ramseys.

Around this time, Trip DeMuth discovered that many of the police interviews with possible suspects had never been transcribed because detectives hadn’t considered them important enough. Hofstrom wanted all of them transcribed. Who knew if some bit of information that had seemed inconsequential ten months ago wouldn’t now provide an answer to important questions. Beckner agreed. He ordered all the tapes transcribed.

Now that Eller was no longer leading the Ramsey investigation, the police union took sides on Larry Mason’s claims against Eller and the department. Earlier in the year, Mason had asked for financial assistance in his lawsuit, in which he claimed he had been wrongly discharged from the Ramsey case. Since Eller’s allegation of Mason’s misconduct was without any merit, the union had voted in January to give Mason the money. Now Marc Colin, Mason’s attorney, said that he wouldn’t settle until Eller had resigned from the Boulder PD.

Since the vote of no confidence against Koby earlier in the year, the chief had met with union leaders on five occasions to discuss their grievances. He conceded that the department “was maxed-out and worn-out.” He admitted he never should have gone into the crowd of students during the Hill riots and begged them to go home. “I was wrong,” Koby said. “I have learned from it. I’m ready to move on.” However, those were not the only problems between management and the rank and file. There were also promotion and hiring issues that couldn’t be resolved overnight. Union leaders gave Koby notice that another vote would be taken within a month. With the November elections less than a month away, candidates for the city council were calling for Koby to account to the citizens of Boulder.

When the union vote was taken in November, the results were as predicted—no confidence. But before the union could even digest the vote, Koby announced his resignation. I’m out of here by next year, he said. Start looking for someone else.

As if Eller’s dismissal and Koby’s problems with the union weren’t enough, on October 20, Brooke Jackson, Detective Linda Arndt’s attorney, wrote a letter to the police chief. News stories in the Globe and Vanity Fair, among others, had falsely defamed his client, he said. She had maintained her silence as ordered, but the Boulder PD had made no effort to defend her. “She has been allowed to become a scapegoat,” Jackson wrote, “if not the primary scapegoat, by a continuous series of statements about one thing or another that she supposedly did that are simply false.” Three days later, Koby called Jackson and indicated that indeed the statements circulated about Arndt were false and unjust. But according to Jackson, Koby said that neither he nor the police department would take any action to correct them. Jackson said that the Boulder PD had a responsibility to correct the public record on Arndt’s behalf.

By February 2, 1998, the police had cleared only Detective Larry Mason. Linda Arndt filed a claim on May 19, 1998, demanding a jury trial, against Koby personally and professionally and against the city of Boulder. It alleged that Koby, knowing that information published about Arndt was false, had caused “acute embarrassment