Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [268]
Ramsey wanted assurances that the interviews with him, Patsy, and Burke were going to take place in the near future. Hunter should understand, Ramsey said, that he was in charge and that if there was a problem with the arrangements, he wanted to know about it.
The DA explained that the canon of ethics prevented him from discussing the interviews or any other aspect of the case with Ramsey directly, unless his attorney approved their communications. Though Hunter had taken a call from Patsy just after his February 13, 1997, press conference, he had done no more than listen to her praise his comments on TV. Hofstrom had met with Patsy and John but always in the presence of their attorneys. Lou Smit had spoken to both Ramseys on the phone, interviewed them, and met them in person but always with their counsel, except for the chance meeting at the Ramseys’ house on June 6, 1997.
John Ramsey told Hunter he would try to get his lawyers’ approval for the conversation he wanted to have with the DA. Ramsey made calls to Bryan Morgan and Hal Haddon but couldn’t reach either one. Frustrated, by evening he was on a plane to Denver. The next morning, he spoke to Morgan in person in a candid one-on-one session. Again, Ramsey told Morgan he would cooperate with the DA, no matter what advice he received from anyone.
That same morning, Hunter told his staff and Beckner about the phone call he’d received from Ramsey. In less than two days, a version of their phone conversation would be set in type by the Globe.
On June 2, the second day of the police presentation, Craig Lewis, a Globe reporter, called Hunter at home before 7:00 A.M. to tell him what the tabloid was about to publish.
After a long pause, Hunter replied, “This makes me think my phone is tapped.” For Lewis, that was confirmation of what the Globe had been told. Hunter begged Lewis to hold the story for at least a week but was refused.
At that very moment, Pete Hofstrom was on the phone to Jim Jenkins, Burke Ramsey’s attorney in Atlanta, about the interview Hunter’s office wanted to conduct after the police presentation. Jenkins found Hofstrom straightforward, proper, and reasonable. Their conversations over the course of a few days were mostly about logistics. Hofstrom mentioned that he would use Dan Schuler, an expert with children, to conduct the interview. Schuler, a detective in his late forties from nearby Broomfield, had degrees in psychology and guidance counseling and was known throughout Colorado for his work with young people. Jenkins said there would be no conditions placed on the interviews and that the choice of interviewer was the DA’s call. They agreed on a location where the questioning could be conducted without the media finding out, and June 10 was set as the starting date for what might be a three-day interview. Hofstrom said he would personally go to Atlanta to make sure that everything went as planned. Both men were cooperative and accommodating. For his part, Hofstrom knew that if Burke’s interviews went smoothly, he could look forward to pretty smooth sailing in arranging John and Patsy’s for the latter part of June.
On Sunday, May 31, Bill Wise picked up Dr. Henry Lee and Barry Scheck at the Denver airport. Lee had made time to attend the presentation in the midst of his tight schedule. On Thursday he would be off to Taiwan, where a mayor, two senators, and their bodyguards had been murdered. Next stop was the Philippines, where there had been four air crashes almost back-to-back, and expert help was sorely needed. Scheck, who was working with Johnnie Cochran on a case in New Jersey, joked that Lee was on the other side of the same murder case, representing the government. But nothing, he said, would ever stand in the way of their friendship. Scheck would have to leave Boulder by noon on June 2.
On the agenda for the day was a tour of the Ramseys’ house. Hunter, Scheck, Lee, Kane,