Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [226]
Though by the end of October 1997 most Boulderites were trying to forget the Ramsey case, the national media were still laying siege to the city. Alex Hunter wondered if the Ramsey case was a sideshow to America or if the media had become a sideshow to the investigation. Either way, the DA knew that once the police presented the case to his office, he would have to decide what the evidence said. If there was evidence exculpatory to the Ramseys, he would have to make it known and take the beating from his critics—or he could let a grand jury deal with the evidence and the critics, as Koby had once suggested. But if there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge someone, he knew that Pete Hofstrom would be dead-set against convening a grand jury.
Hunter was reminded of the Manning case, in which a dead child’s mother had confessed and implicated her live-in boyfriend, Danny Arevalo, in the crime. A writer covering the Ramsey case was told by a jurist that in the Arevalo trial, Hunter had urged Hofstrom to put a key witness on the stand though Hofstrom didn’t believe the person’s information. Hofstrom, never one to cast ethics aside, was so troubled by what he’d done that in open court he asked the judge to strike the testimony of the witness as not credible.
Hunter didn’t want another “Manning problem” with his chief trial deputy. If Hofstrom couldn’t file charges in the Ramsey case as a matter of conscience, the DA knew he could not order Pete to act against his beliefs.
9
On October 24, John Ramsey’s attorneys hosted their annual Halloween party. Hal Haddon and Lee Foreman showed up in drag. At another party, held at the Boulder Elks Club, Patsy’s attorney Pat Furman showed up as Gary Davis, a convicted killer who had been executed on October 13—the first execution in Colorado since 1967. Taped to each of Furman’s forearms, as part of his costume, was a large syringe. Furman had briefly represented Davis. James Aber, a public defender in Jefferson County, came dressed in a cowgirl outfit similar to one JonBenét had worn in a pageant; duct tape covered his mouth.
That evening, Aber discussed holding a murder mystery party with JonBenét’s death to be solved by the guests. One of the Ramsey attorneys joked that the perpetrator would be Koby.
RAMSEY EXIT TO FOLLOW TRADE OF BOULDER FIRM
Lockheed Martin Corp. said Monday that it has reached an agreement to trade Boulder-based Access Graphics Inc. and certain other assets to General Electric Co. for $2.8 billion in stock and that Access President John Ramsey will leave the computer distribution firm.
Daily Camera, November 4, 1997
A couple of days before the Daily Camera reported the sale of Access Graphics to General Electric, John Ramsey’s attorneys visited Alex Hunter. They complained that Ramsey was going to take a financial hit in the stock trade between Lockheed Martin and GE. Not only had Ramsey’s contract not been picked up by GE; he had been terminated before the sale was made. Laurie Wagner was the only Access Graphics employee from the Ramsey camp who was moving over to GE.
Hunter understood what the attorneys were suggesting: that John Ramsey might choose to seek financial restitution from the city of Boulder because the police had leaked information to the media that he was responsible for his daughter’s death. They would claim that this had damaged his reputation and credibility, which in turn had curtailed his advancement as an executive. Hunter told Ramsey’s lawyers to save their breath.
A few days later, Access Graphics held its quarterly “What’s Happening Meeting,” at the Boulder Theater on 14th Street. John Ramsey was to introduce Perry Monych, the new president of Access Graphics. In a short statement, Ramsey said that the sale of the company had been a strategic decision between two of the largest companies in the world and had nothing to do with the death of his daughter. Ramsey was restrained and unemotional, but Laurie Wagner could see that he was