Don't worry, Tezi. I'm just the man to educate them! And I'm on the job!
Alex Hunter was elected DA in 1972 and was never voted out until his retirement in 2000. This case was his downfall because he was not able to do what he had done in the past: sweep his failings under the rug. He was a product of the 60s, that terrible and terribly romanticized era when cops were "pigs," drugs were "in," and big government was the solution to every problem. He was a defense lawyer who felt that winning wasn't everything when it came to trying criminals. And he certainly practiced what he preached. By Christmas of 1996, Alex Hunter had not taken a single case to trial in almost a decade. To say he was not an aggressive prosecutor is like saying water is wet. He spent most of his time offering plea bargains. With such a dismal record, his thirty year tenure is hard to explain to anyone who doesn't understand the Boulder political climate, but simple once you do. And that long tenure led to inertia and complaceny. To those who claim that since he was never voted out, he couldn't have been that bad, I say this: there's an old saying in American politics that says "you get the government you deserve." Boulder deserved Alex Hunter. JonBenet certainly did not.
But these are all generalizations. Let's look at some hard specifics. Many sources have spoken of Hunter's lousy record, so let's have a look:
--1981: In a highly publicized case, Hunter charged Christopher Courtney with second-degree murder after Courtney shot two people dead at the Longmont Civic Center. When the first trial ended in a mistrial, Hunter reduced the charge to criminally negligent homicide and Courtney walked away with a two-year sentence in the county jail. That generated cries of dismay from the mayor and city council.
--1982: Kirk Long resigned as undersheriff. Long penned a letter at that time that sounds strikingly reminiscent of that written in 1998 by Steve Thomas. The letter said, in part: "We in America have a legal system that is designed to be adversarial. It is apparent to me that the only adversary relationships within the legal system of the 20th Judicial District are the relationships between law enforcement agencies and the office of the District Attorney. The ignoring of compelling physical evidence, the artificial bolstering of conviction statistics through plea bargaining, deferred prosecutions, and deferred sentences speaks loudly of incompetence and political maneuvering. The essence of my belief is that the citizens of Boulder County do not have an advocate in the judicial system."
--1985: In a case of foot-dragging, it took Hunter more than two years to charge Mike Grainger with a crime, even though Grainger's obese wife was found laying in bed with a massive head wound, and there was no evidence of an intruder. Grainger got three years.
--1986: In his last major case, Hunter was named special prosecutor in neighboring Adams County to try the sheriff there, Bert Johnson. The sheriff was charged with extortion, embezzlement and sexual misconduct. Hunter offered to dismiss all charges if Johnson would resign from office, but the judge rejected the deal. Hunter lost the case at trial. He decided never to try another case.
And it should come as no surprise that the Grand Jury empaneled to investigate the JB case went nowhere, because none of the DAs, including Hunter himself, had any real experience with handling them. He and his staff didn't WANT a GJ in the first place, and only did so because Gov. Romer was feeling the heat from ST's resignation letter and wanted to cover his own butt. Once he was bricked into that corner, at least he had the sense to call in outside help. Specifically, he brought on Michael Kane, Bruce Levin and Mitch Morrisey, experienced prosecutors with winning records who knew how to handle Grand Juries. But, as with the GJ itself--which I have aptly described as a dog and pony show, which the doberman no-showed--the three specialists were essentially window-dressing, which they themselves have said. To paraphrase Henry Lee, the egg was already scrambled. I should point out that there is only one instance where a Grand Jury was used by Hunter, and it was a debacle just like this case. I'll let ST tell it:
I received a copy of a letter containing information on the cold case of one Thayne Smika, who had been arrested in 1983 for the shotgun slaying of Sid Wells. The accused murderer is today, in cop talk, in the wind, becasue Alex Hunter secretly promised the defense attorney that the GJ hearing the case would not indict Smika. The victim's family, the investigating cops, and the grand jurors were not told of this deal.
With this in mind, the various sources--both RDI and IDI--who claimed that Hunter dismissed the Ramsey GJ before they could vote become even more credible.
Then there's Hunter's mindset, which I have often talked about. It's been said that Hunter had a definition of reasonable doubt that no one could meet, and that he'd require a videotape of the crime, a signed confession and a DNA match just to issue an arrest warrant. He would often defend this inflexibility by saying that he wanted to get all of his ducks in order. During the A&E documentary "Anatomy of a Murder," Hunter said, incredibly, that Johnnie Cocharan rushed the LA DA into prosecuting OJ Simpson before they were ready, even though they had a mountain of evidence against him. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I have no doubt that the Simpson case scared the brown stuff out of Hunter. It's implication was clear: if a powerful, aggressive team of prosecutors with a mountain of evidence couldn't convict OJ--even though the only thing they were missing was the proverbial busload of nuns--what chance did Hunter have against lawyers from one of the most powerful law firms in the country?
He claimed that the police didn't have enough evidence to bring charges, but he himself could have done the required things to GET evidence. He did none of them. Hrefused to grant search warrants. He refused to countenance the idea of throwing the Rs into separate holding cells until one confessed, even though it worked like a charm in the Lisa Steinberg case. He gave away tons of evidence to the defense.
That's not to say that he doesn't have his fans. Problem is, they're all far-left, "cops-are-pigs" defense attorneys. One is Alan Dershowitz, who defended OJ. Here's an exchange between him and ST:
DERSHOWITZ: I think that Alex Hunter is, although he's become criticized, I think he's a constitutional hero. He's a man who has made a decision to take the barbs and the slings, and there are going to be many, because it's much easier to bring the case. It would take no courage to bring the prosecution, and then if the jury acquitted, blame it on the jury. But it takes a lot of courage for a district attorney to bite the bullet and take the hard decision, and say there was a murder, maybe it's even likely certain people did it, but likely isn't enough.
THOMAS: Well, let me make one comment. Mr. Dershowitz is with all due respect, a notorious criminal defense attorney. Where is a Vincent Bugliosi or a Rudy Giuliani sitting next to Mr. Hunter, these guys, who I consider hero prosecutors making that argument.
REAL prosecutors have no trouble calling it like it is. Here's an excerpt from an interview with Vincent Bugliosi:
VINCENT BUGLIOSI I'm sure he's an honorable person and he's interested in seeking justice in this case. But he's certainly not the stereotypical DA who's tough and hard—nosed. And you need an aggressive DA in a situation like this. And he apparently is not that type of person.
ELIZABETH VARGAS (VO) Which, perhaps, is why his critics say it took public protest to get the Ramsey case to a grand jury after nearly two years. Remember, a grand jury can compel reluctant witnesses to testify. (interviewing) How unusual is it to wait that long to impanel a grand jury to investigate that?
VINCENT BUGLIOSI It's highly unusual, particularly when you have two suspects and they're not cooperating with you I mean, it's DA 101 that when you have two suspects, you do everything possible immediately to separate those two and not give them time for their stories to harden and to reconcile with each other. It's being done now, a year and a half later. But it's a little late in the day. Incompetence.
And that's not even the worst of it. When he left, Mary Lacy took over, and she was even worse. At least--according to Henry Lee and ST--Hunter would hear all sides. Lacy was like Paul Simon's Boxer: hears what she wants to hear and disregards the rest. She refused to even SPEAK to the investigators who worked on the case during Hunter's tenure. She made up her mind from Day One that since the Rs didn't fit the standard profile, they couldn't have done this. She let her feminist beliefs cloud her judgment. She pegged Bill McReynolds as the killer and would not let go until his 2002 death of heart failure. She actually chastised Tom Haney for being too tough on Patsy during the '98 interviews. WHAT?! Tom Haney is one of the finest homicide detectives in the entire Rocky Mountain area, if not the country. His record speaks for itself. And here's this assistant DA, who at that time I don't think had ever tried a murder case in her entire career, and to my knowledge still hasn't, telling him he was too tough for using absolutely STANDARD interrogation techniques that the greenest rookie on the beat would know! Haney's general feeling was, "who the hell does she think SHE is?"
Another incident came in 2006 when a ten-month-old boy named Jason Midyette was beaten to death and she wouldn't take any action because the grandfather owns half of Boulder's Pearl Street Mall. Lacy only filed charges after Bill O'Reilly's people hounded her in her own driveway for weeks.
There are many reasons why Patsy Ramsey was never prosecuted for murder. The DA's office is one of the big ones. When ST talks about the people in this case who will have to beg their way into heaven, you KNOW who he's talking about.
I've laid down the challenge. Defend them if you can!
