Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [254]
On March 5, Hofstrom wrote to Commander Beckner.
THE STATE OF COLORADO
TWENTIETH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
ALEXANDER M. HUNTER
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
TO:
Commander Mark Beckner
Boulder Police Department
FROM:
Peter A. Hofstrom
Chief Trial Deputy District Attorney
SUBJECT:
Possible use of the Boulder County Grand Jury in the JonBenét Ramsey homicide investigation.
I am writing this memorandum in response to your request that I take notice of the fact that you are considering asking the District Attorney’s Office to convene the Boulder County Grand Jury and to ask the Grand Jury if they would desire to hear evidence concerning and investigate the JonBenét Ramsey homicide. The purpose of this letter is to set out my thoughts concerning the conditions precedent to such a request being considered in a meaningful and productive manner.
While this office will support the appropriate use of the Boulder County Grand Jury in this case, the following need to be received before your request of use of the Grand Jury can be evaluated and acted upon by the District Attorney’s Office.
1. A written statement from you setting out the Police Department’s position on the issue of whether or not there is, at this time, sufficient admissible evidence to charge an identifiable person.
2. A statement of reasons that, in your opinion, support the use of the Grand Jury at this time.
3. A list of every “reluctant” witness that the Police Department believes should be called before the Grand Jury…The list should include the following information regarding each person named:
a. Has this person been interviewed by the Police in the past?
b. If not, why not?
c. If the person has been interviewed, how many times has he or she been interviewed?
d. Have you attached a transcript of each interview, and a copy of each report, or witness information sheet or relevant notes for that person to the list?
e. If not, why not?
f. Why does the person have to be called before the Grand Jury instead of simply being interviewed by law enforcement personnel?
g. What do you expect that this person will testify to before the Grand Jury if called to testify?
h. Why do you expect that the person called to testify would provide the testimony referred to ing) above?
i. What is the relevance and materiality of that testimony to the issue of whether or not there is sufficient admissible evidence to file a charge against an identifiable person in this case?
4. An appropriately organized and formatted copy of the Police Department’s investigative case file.
…The procedure set out above will allow us to properly evaluate your request for Grand Jury involvement in the JonBenét Ramsey homicide investigation.
[signed]
Peter A. Hofstrom
The next day, Hunter told Koby he did not want to wait until his office was handed the case to receive the six missing binders. Koby told him that if he wanted support in getting the files, he should support Beckner’s request for a grand jury. To Koby, Hofstrom’s letter looked like an attempt to block the request for a grand jury. Hunter was noncommittal; he said he’d have to keep his options open for now.
Indeed, Hofstrom was a stumbling block for Hunter too. He had said it might take six months to reinvestigate the entire case after they received it from the police. Hunter had told Pete there was no way he could afford to take six months. “But look at how many other cases I have,” Hofstrom protested. When Koby heard about the six-month estimate, he went directly to Hofstrom. “The media is going to be all over you, like they were all over us,” the chief told the deputy DA.
Bob Grant, who for a year had acted as spokesman for Hunter, said on TV that once the DA’s office was handed the case, evaluation of the police files would take around thirty days.
DA HINTS RAMSEY CASE HEADED FOR GRAND JURY
District Attorney Alex Hunter hinted Monday that the 15-month-old JonBenét Ramsey