JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation (34 page)

NOT SO GRAND JURY

24

In mid-September, a panel of pediatric experts from around the country reached one of the major conclusions of the investigation—that JonBenét had suffered vaginal trauma prior to the day she was killed.

There were no dissenting opinions among them on the issue, and they firmly rejected any possibility that the trauma to the hymen and chronic vaginal inflammation were caused by urination issues or masturbation. We gathered affidavits stating in clear language that there were injuries “consistent with prior trauma and sexual abuse” … “There was chronic abuse” … “Past violation of the vagina” … “Evidence of both acute injury and chronic sexual abuse.” In other words, the doctors were saying it had happened before. One expert summed it up well when he said the injuries were not consistent with sexual assault but with a child who was being physically abused.

Such findings would lead an investigator to conclude that the person who inflicted that abuse was someone with frequent or unquestioned access to the child, and that limited the number of suspects. Every statistic in the book pointed to someone inside the family.

The detectives could not imagine a scenario in which some mysterious intruder broke into the house, not only on the night JonBenét was killed but also on previous occasions, in order to abuse her.

A much more likely cause of the injuries to my thinking was some sort of corporal punishment being meted out as discipline if JonBenét wet or soiled the bed. That possibility was buttressed by the absence of semen on the body and an expert’s opinion that the vaginal and hymenal damage was not due to an act of sexual gratification.

The results, however, were not what is known in the legal world as “conclusive”—which means that there can be no other interpretation—and I would fully expect defense lawyers to argue something different. Nevertheless, our highly qualified doctors had brought in a remarkable finding.

We had reached one of the two levels that Deputy DA Pete Hofstrom had said would mark the turning point toward prosecution—all of the experts we consulted agreed on prior vaginal abuse. We still needed the second point, an expert opinion that Patsy Ramsey wrote the ransom note.

Then we had the experts assess why a tiny splinter had been found in JonBenét’s vagina.

The cellulose splinter was believed to have come from the same paintbrush that had been used to make the garrote. Although the source of the splinter was never definitively proved, I considered it highly unlikely that it originated anywhere else. And that brush belonged to Patsy Ramsey.

In a three-page report, forensics expert Dr. Werner Spitz furnished a logical sequence of events on the night JonBenét was killed.

• First there had been a manual strangulation, by twisting the collar of the shirt, with the perpetrator’s knuckles causing the neck abrasion. That was consistent with a rage-type attack.

• Then came the devastating blow to the head, followed by the garrote strangulation. The detectives felt this could have been done either to ensure death or as part of a staging. Another doctor said that the head was hit with great force and that the cracking skull would have made a tremendous noise. It was agreed that the cord around the throat was applied to a victim who offered little or no resistance, probably as she lay grievously wounded by the head injury.

• By examining the condition of the pineapple in the stomach and the rate of digestion, Spitz put the time of death “about or before 1 A.M.”

To my mind, what Spitz described was consistent with someone being out of control. It was not consistent with someone trying to kidnap a child for ransom.

We reached a crucial turning point in aggressively pursuing the murder investigation when Commander John Eller was dismissed from the case in October. His replacement was Commander Mark Beckner, a company man. The change, which was for political rather than practical reasons, inexorably shifted the centerpoint of the investigation from the police SitRoom to the office of the district attorney.

Our New Age chief, Tom Koby, who preached sunshine and good feelings, ruled that John Eller—the last ranking cop who had not risen to command through Koby’s touchy-feely administration—wasn’t really suited for police work. While temporarily leaving Eller in charge of the detective bureau, the chief would soon fire him.

Only days before his appointment, Mark Beckner had been leading a new Internal Affairs witch-hunt to track down the anonymous police sources in the
Vanity Fair
article, planning polygraphs and suggesting possible criminal charges against whoever had talked to the reporter. Apparently it was a mortal sin for anyone in the police department to speak to a reporter.

And this was going to be our new leader? I couldn’t believe it.

I remembered Beckner from back when he succeeded Eller as head of Tom Koby’s nonviolent SWAT team. With Eller in charge, the team was motivated and highly trained. He bonded with us, and parties at his house featured John on his electric guitar, lots of beer, and doing stupid things like holding Roman candles in our teeth. We would go through a door for John Eller any day. Beckner was remembered for refusing to bring his boat to a SWAT team party at the reservoir, explaining that “I don’t want you guys messing it up.” Our attitude became “OK, Mark, be sure to call us the next time you need someone to risk his life.” That was one reason I left the team and went into undercover narcotics.

Chief Koby had authorized a series of actions—such as holding the body of JonBenét for further testing, going after Sergeant Mason for talking to the media, and the sting linking the
Globe
’
s
Jeff Shapiro with the district attorney—only to roll back on his decisions and leave Commander Eller to take the heat. Koby made Eller the scapegoat for the entire mess.

Losing Commander Eller meant we were losing our chief defender at a critical time in the investigation. Eller had neither needed, wanted, respected, nor feared the DA’s people. They in turn hated him. With his removal, we felt terribly exposed. The only people we had left to prevent the DA’s intrusive power and political positioning from taking over were the department’s legal adviser, Bob Keatley, and our Dream Team of outside attorneys, all of whom were soon to be brushed aside and their input ignored.

Chief Koby gave another disastrous news conference, this time speaking to a full house of journalists with plenty of national network cameras present. He read a prepared statement about the Eller-Beckner change of command, then announced that the police were officially leaving the DA’s War Room.

The chief seemed determined not to antagonize the media this time, but like a lemming running off a cliff, he just couldn’t avoid self-destructing. He pulled a copy of the United States Constitution from his pocket and lectured the savvy press corps about their First Amendment responsibilities. His moralizing was silly because as he chastised the media for lacking leadership, accountability, and standards, his cops were saying the same thing about him.

Commander Mark Beckner rode in on a charger of personal optimism. Things were going to change, he promised. We were getting three new detectives and new support staffing! We were going to get those warrants! We were no longer going to waste our time chasing every wagging-tail suspect that was thrown at us! Unless something met a “reasonable standard” for follow-up investigation, we wouldn’t do it! We were going to make our case! That lasted only until he read the DA’s Five-Year Plan. He then commented, “This is not going to be easy.”

His initial attitude was fire and brimstone. Ours was wait and see. And as the weeks passed, examples stacked up to show that he was unwilling to fight the district attorney’s office. On paper Commander Beckner looked pretty good, but many of us felt he was just a paper-chasing administrator who desperately wanted to be chief. In my opinion, he wasn’t about to go to bat for the detectives on the Ramsey case if such actions put his career plans at risk.

After he had been in command for only a month, the detectives were almost in open mutiny.

It began at a briefing in which our new boss unveiled a to-do list that he thought would carry the case to a conclusion. We pointed out that we already had plenty of lists and he was just shuffling what was already on the table. His list was not some crystal ball in which the face of the killer would suddenly appear.

Then Commander Beckner ordered us to be “more objective” in our reports and not skew them to theories that a Ramsey was involved in the death of JonBenét. It was an insult.

He appeared to be already in the DA’s camp, because those accusatory words were all too familiar. We challenged him, demanding that he show us even one report in which we had slanted our views. He could not.

Tell the same thing to the DA’s investigators, Lou Smit and Steve Ainsworth, we argued. Read their red notebooks and see how the case is being polluted with their nonsense.

Beckner plunged ahead and suggested that since Smit was “just sitting over there in the DA’s office,” we should use him to run down possible intruder leads. Oh, really? What about flying off to pick up Kevin Raburn in Tennessee? What about their stun guns and exhumation plans? Beckner stammered. Sergeant Tom Wickman, who believed he was being cut out of his leadership position by Beckner, rolled his eyes in exasperation.

The commander warned that we should be prepared for Smit to make an arrest without us if the DA’s office developed a “good suspect.” I asked why we couldn’t do the same thing and arrest a suspect whom we could put at the crime scene and for whom we already had probable cause. Detective Gosage said he wasn’t worried about Smit, Ainsworth, and Trip DeMuth turning up some unknown intruder. “Let ’em fucking look. They’re never going to find him,” he said.

Nevertheless, it irked us that the DA’s office seemed to be trying to solve the case without us. It would be the ultimate political ploy. They would crow about how the police had screwed up the investigation but the DA saved it.

We believed Beckner had been seduced by the DA’s team, and without much of a struggle. When he sought to become chief of police, he would need the political clout of DA Alex Hunter. In my opinion, as events unfolded, it would not come without a price.

Trying to mend fences after the briefing fiasco, Beckner came by for a talk but did nothing to ameliorate my concern.

If a grand jury is called, he said, the DA’s office will handle it and not bring in outside help.

“Why?” I asked. They did not have experience with grand juries and didn’t even
like
them. Beckner said there was no choice, since Alex Hunter was the only game in town. “We still have to work with them when this is over,” he explained. “That’s the reality. We can’t burn that bridge down.”

I asked Beckner point-blank if he thought the Ramseys did it, and he took a big breath. Yes, he said, one or both were involved. He did not think it was an intruder and agreed there was probable cause for an arrest but thought we didn’t have it “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“That’s what a trial is for, Mark. If we have the right defendant in the courtroom, a prosecutor can bring the pieces of the puzzle together,” I replied. There was a whole mountain of circumstantial evidence, and in my opinion a tough prosecutor could do it.

Commander Beckner shook his head. “We may never file a case, Steve. You need to prepare for the eventuality that this case might not be prosecuted.” That was language straight out of the DA’s office, and it sounded to me as if he were already throwing in the towel.

We achieved a Pyrrhic victory on November 5 when Beckner burst into the SitRoom and proudly handed me a “Consent to Release of Telephone Records” signed by both John Ramsey and Pete Hofstrom. It allowed us to obtain the Ramseys’ cellular and home telephone records between December 1 and 27, 1996. We had had to wait almost a year to see them, which had given the Ramsey lawyers months to work through the limited documents. The woefully incomplete permission slip did not give up Ramsey’s company phones, calls made with a telephone card, or records about calls before or after December. We found nothing worthwhile. Just another exhausting trip to nowhere.

I sent a fax to AirTouch in Washington state and personally served the paper on US West in downtown Denver.

“I’ve been waiting for a phone call from you guys since last December,” a telephone company security official said as he handed me the packet. “Usually cops come and get these things right away.”

I winced, so tired of being embarrassed by this case.

“Yeah, I get subpoenas and warrants every day,” he repeated. “Surprised you took so long.”

“I’ll have to explain it to you someday,” I replied and headed for the elevator.

The AirTouch cell phone records were useless. Ramsey started the service in January 1994. AirTouch said that 91 minutes of use were logged during the August-September billing period of 1996, and 108 minutes were used in September—October. October—November was just as busy.

December, however, the only period we were allowed to see, was empty. No calls at all. I asked if someone could have removed billing records from the computer? “No way,” the AirTouch source told me.

“All these months preceding December are busy, and not one call was logged for that entire month?”

The representative was firm: “There ain’t no way anybody altered these records.” It wasn’t logical. A search warrant might have answered the question eleven months ago, but we had only this thin new “consent.”

Checking the records, I found a repeat caller to John Ramsey’s private office line. Three calls the day after the murder and two more a few days later came from the home phone of the lieutenant governor of the State of Colorado, Gail Schoettler.

Treating her like any other witness simply didn’t work. The lieutenant governor strutted her political power and stonewalled me until she was damned good and ready to answer questions. Her husband, Don Stevens, a friend of John Ramsey for thirty-five years, had made the calls merely to convey sympathy, Schoettler told me. The experience demonstrated how deeply John Ramsey was now plugged into the Democratic Party power structure. Colorado Governor Roy Romer was chairman of the Democratic National Committee and advised by the politically astute Hal Haddon, one of John Ramsey’s attorneys. Haddon’s firm prepared President Clinton’s taxes. When Schoettler left office, she was appointed head of the U.S. delegation to an international commission by President Clinton.