Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [292]
That’s leadership in Boulder.
Of course, it won’t work. The Thomas problem won’t just evaporate. One way or the other, it will dog this case ’til the end.
—Chuck Green
The Denver Post, August 9, 1998
Hunter finally called his office on Monday, August 10, from a bed and breakfast in Juneau. Wise read him Thomas’s letter and told him about the meeting with Beckner. Hunter was stunned. Wise said he thought it would just go away, like Fleet White’s letters, but Hunter saw that Thomas’s letter was entirely different. The detective had, after all, been on the inside of the case, and if it went to trial, any defense attorney worth his retainer was sure to make good use of the letter with the jury. The DA said he’d call Wise back. When he did, Wise told him that the governor had gotten the metro DAs involved.
“Our dream team,” Wise said, “is now the governor’s task force.” Alex Hunter understood that the DAs were no longer his trusted advisers.
That same afternoon, Monday, August 10, the metro DAs met to discuss Thomas’s letter. They had to be able to talk candidly, so nobody from Hunter’s office was invited. Grant, who knew the case best, thought that there was nothing troublesome in the letter from a prosecutorial perspective. What concerned the DAs, however, was that Thomas had hit a nerve, expressing the same frustration that the public was feeling. They realized that something had to be done to restore the public’s confidence in the prosecution’s handling of the case.
Grant and Ritter knew that there was serious dissension within Hunter’s team about taking the case to the grand jury. Grant felt that Kane needed the support of strong attorneys and that anyone who was standing in his way should be asked to leave.
The DAs called Governor Romer and told him that Hunter was making the right decisions, that the case was on target. Hunter had told them, they said, that the grand jury would meet to hear the Ramsey case on September 15. They assured the governor that Thomas’s letter hadn’t changed their thinking. They were, however, prepared to recommend that Hunter take on additional prosecutorial support. They hoped this would reassure the public that the case was on track.
Late Monday, Bob Grant called Hunter, who had finally arrived home. Grant told the DA what had happened in his absence and said there would be a meeting with all involved parties in Denver on Wednesday.
“I or anybody you want will be available,” Hunter said. “Anytime, anywhere.”
On Tuesday, August 11, Hunter, Hofstrom, and Wise met to prepare for their meeting with the metro DAs. Michael Kane was not invited to join the discussions. It was better to isolate him from these kinds of problems, they thought. He had enough on his plate with the case itself.
Wise had known the metro DAs for years, much better than Hunter. Having talked to Grant the previous day, he was sure the DAs would tell the governor that no special prosecutor was needed. Wise had suggested to Grant that he talk directly to Beckner, who would certainly say that Thomas’s charges were wrong.
Wise detailed for Hunter and Hofstrom what he knew to be the truth behind Thomas’s allegations. The “hidden surveillance camera” Thomas referred to was bullshit. The way Wise remembered it, the police had gone to the Ramsey house in December 1997 without the DA’s permission or the Ramseys’ knowledge. A representative of the Ramseys had been asked to open up the place and he’d brought the wrong key, so the detectives had entered the house through a broken window. Once inside, the police saw the motion-activated security cameras pointed at them: They were caught making an illegal entry.
Then Thomas referred to some forensic tests that hadn’t been done. He could be talking about the mixed DNA stain on JonBenét’s underwear or a test that had still not been conducted on the pubic hair found on the blanket. It had been decided to hold up on this test because