Contributed by:
Travis Henry/YourHub.com
on 8/17/2006
In the summer of 2002, I attended a press conference at the Boulder County Justice Center regarding one of the highest profile cases in the county at the time.
Prosecutor
Pete Maguire was announcing that the district attorney's office was dropping charges against University of Colorado wide receiver
Ron Monteilh, who was accused of supplying marijuana to high school recruits during a party.
His arrest, along with three others,was the result of an investigation into claims by a female student who said she was sexually assaulted by several people at a off-campus party attended by CU football players and recruits.
Maguire dismissed the case saying that Monteilh was "misidentified."
His attorney,
Stephen Wall, said bluntly,"The charges against Monteilh were always bogus."
I couldn't help but be reminded of that press conference four years ago as I watched District Attorney
Mary Lacy step up to the podium with Maguire Thursday.
I started to wonder if it wouldn't be long before they were holding a similar press conference announcing that
John Mark Karr, the suspect they had arrested in connection with
JonBenet Ramsey's death, was no longer a suspect at all.
Besides the JonBenet Ramsey case, Lacy is best known for the so-called CU recruiting scandal that ended up in tarnished reputations and ruined careers -- but no sexual assault charges despite strong accusations by Lacy.
While the case began in 2002, it didn't turn into a media frenzy until statements by Lacy were made public in 2004. In a deposition, Lacy stated that sex and alcohol were used to lure top recruits to CU and that university officials knew it.
Back then Lacy was a little more talkative when it came to an open investigation. On Thursday, there were a lot of "no comments."
To her benefit, I always thought it took guts for Lacy to support the intruder theory in the JonBenet Ramsey case.
I covered the case for six years and the evidence is pretty strong that an intruder, and not a family member, killed JonBenet. But the theory was unpopular for a long time.
As a reporter I used to be bombarded weekly with "new leads","new suspects", and "new evidence" via the Internet. I'm sure what I received was a drop in the bucket compared to the leads law officials received. I don't envy an investigator's task of weeding through all of that information.
During that time I spoke to a lot of strange people who told me a lot of strange things. So I am a little sympathetic, yet skeptical, of University of Colorado Journalism Professor
Michael Tracey's role in this whole matter.
In December of 2004, he released a a documentary promising to examine "new evidence" in the JonBenet Ramsey homicide investigation.
In a press release, Tracey claimed "a new team of investigators has uncovered dramatic new evidence about the murder, resulting in the identification of a key suspect" that would be featured in a documentary he co-produced.
Much of the evidence, however, was a rehash of news that had been reported before and even "no comment" Lacy said the "new evidence" wasn't new at all.
I also remember early 2000, when the JonBenet case made front page news after a "mystery" California woman came forward with allegations of ritualistic sexual abuse at holiday parties by a group that included people associated with the murder case, including close family friends of the
Ramseys.
Although police in California labeled the woman a "fruit loop," the Boulder County District Attorney's Office took her claims "very seriously."
That woman's allegations were also brought forward by a journalist. A Boulder Daily Camera editor heard the woman's story and arranged a meeting with the Boulder County district attorney at the time,
Alex Hunter.
After the interview, Hunter said he found the woman "very believable."
The accusations ended in libel suits and much ugliness, but no arrests in JonBenet's murder.
On Wednesday night former lead Ramsey prosecutor
Trip DeMuth told me he just hoped Lacy was smart enough to get DNA evidence before announcing the arrest of a suspect in this case.
There's a chance that the strong group of professionals Keenan has working with her have put together a solid investigation that has led to the suspect now in custody.
We will see.
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Email me at
henryt@yourhub.com
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