Ex-DA 'admired' Ramsey

Hunter says mother of murder victim 'was a survivor'

Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 26, 2006 at midnight

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Alex Hunter was vacationing in Hawaii when he first heard about the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.

He was there again nearly 10 years later when he learned that her mother, Patsy Ramsey, had lost a long battle with cancer.

In his first interview in six years, the former Boulder district attorney voiced sympathy and respect for the woman who many once thought might be indicted, along with her husband, by a grand jury that Hunter led.

"I admired her. My wife is an OB-GYN, so I know something about ovarian cancer. And I know this woman was a survivor several times over," Hunter said.

He added, "As a fellow human being, I empathize and respect deeply that struggle, that she was able to do with her chin high, and manage to be a mother, under the circumstances of this case - which I confess I can't imagine. I cannot imagine how she did that."

Hunter's successor in office, Mary Lacy, raised a few eyebrows by attending Patsy Ramsey's memorial service on June 29 in Roswell, Ga.

Hunter did not. To do so, he felt, might have been awkward. Nonetheless, he said he shared sadness over her death.

"I think when we react to death, I think we probably react similarly, most of us," he said. "We don't like to see people die - unless they're really bad people, and there was no evidence that this was a bad lady."

Hunter, who during his career spoke with far more passion about his concept of justice than he did about conviction rates, added, "I am a person who truly believes there is a presumption of innocence. I don't wink at it. So if I am sincere about that - and some of your readers won't be sure, but that's OK - then she deserves to be acknowledged in a compassionate way at the time of her death."

The elusive hero status

Hunter, who turned 70 Wednesday, understands that his and the Ramseys' names are destined to be intertwined, that his seven terms in office will be remembered most for the murder of a 6-year-old girl on the eve of his final term, and for what he did - and failed to do - in the ensuing four years.

"I'm like a lot of American males, and females, for that matter. I was brought up in a culture that was sort of hero-worshiping. I've always wanted to be a hero. I wanted to save this case. I wanted to solve this case."

Hunter sees ours as a "Vince Lombardi" society in which winning is all that matters. He accepts that, he said, but added that he believes he nevertheless has picked up a few fans, such as Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz.

"He was on (Larry) King, and he said, 'Hunter's my hero,' " Hunter recalled. "And of course what he meant by that is that I'd made a tough call, and a call the public didn't like."

That was Oct. 13, 1999, when Hunter stood before a media throng and said, "We do not have sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of charges against anyone who has been investigated at the present time."

Respecting the secrecy of the grand jury process, Hunter still will say little about what went on during that panel's sessions, which began in September 1998.

"I felt it was a totally successful process," he said. "They operated as grand juries operate, and by that I mean, when they wanted stuff, they got stuff. We gave it to them."

The Thomas factor

Hunter has probably had no stronger critic through his tenure on the case than former Boulder police Detective Steve Thomas.

Thomas, who resigned from the department in summer 1998, has left law enforcement and is building houses with a friend in Australia.

When Thomas resigned, he did so with a blistering eight-page letter in which he put the lack of charges in the case squarely on Hunter's doorstep, accusing the prosecutor and his staff of impeding justice.

Several newspaper editorials echoed Thomas's critique, Hunter recalled, and "cut me below the bellybutton, and side to side."

Thomas wrote a book, published in 2000, in which he underscored his contempt for Hunter's approach to the case and the judicial system.

Hunter, who remembers the Thomas broadsides as "one of the bumps for me in the case," is restrained in talking about them now.

"I think he did what he thought he should do," he said. "He thought he should write a book. I don't think he should have written a book with case file information. I don't think that's something he should have done . . . because these are case-confidential files, and they, to disclose them, can prejudice a case."

Thomas, in an e-mail sent this weekend from Australia, said he doesn't regret writing a book "after it became painfully evident that there was never going to be a filing in this case." He called Hunter's criticism "disingenuous."

The former detective said that Hunter "hosted the Globe tabloid in his office on a fairly regular basis, for example, talking about the case file information to which he refers."

Hunter insists that he never discussed anything of evidentiary value with a tabloid reporter.

Thomas added that he has no doubt Hunter wished for "a proper resolution to this case."

"These cases don't solve themselves, and we just had different ideologies about how hard to push the agenda and pursue the matter properly," he said. "It is unfortunate that his legacy will reflect an absence of duty in this case."

The trouble with statistics

Thomas' book made clear his belief that Patsy Ramsey was responsible for the murder, and attributes that belief to others in his department, up to and including Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner, when Beckner was the detective bureau commander.

Hunter chooses his words carefully in discussing the Ramseys.

"I never saw anything in this investigation that indicated to me they were bad people," he said. "There was no history of abuse, nothing to support (that) this wasn't a loved child, in the evidence that I saw."

Hunter has high praise for former Boulder police chief Tom Koby, but believes that some in Koby's department were overly influenced by FBI profilers, who stressed the likelihood of a family member's involvement in JonBenet's death.

Hunter feels much of the same frustration as others who have watched the case unfold, then unravel, yielding only enduring questions without answers.

Still, he said, "It was a good ride. A good play. I have zero anger at anybody involved in it - even Thomas. And, I'm grateful for that, too, because I think anger can eat us to death.

"And that's sort of where it is."

About the series: 10 years of mystery

• Saturday: Many experts agree mistakes, missteps, the cumulative effects of time and other factors combine to make it highly unlikely the JonBenet Ramsey case will ever result in a trial and conviction.

• Monday: Part 1 of an exclusive interview with former Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter, breaking his silence on the Ramsey case six years after leaving office.

• Today: Part 2 of an exclusive interview with Alex Hunter, who talks about his feelings concerning the recent death of Patsy Ramsey, the grand jury investigation, former Boulder police Detective Steve Thomas and more.

• Missed a part? Read the complete story, as well as the extensive Ramsey case archive, online at RockyMountainNews.com.

brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2742

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