Actually, a judge is not the finder of fact. The jury is.
I’ve hesitated to post a follow-up comment since I respect that you’ve read a lot about this and can really understand why you question they are facts vs. opinions. But while I appreciate that you are questioning that they are facts, in this particular case I believe there has been so much speculated, published and posted in forums, that the reality has become foggy with misinformation. I’ll briefly share why I don’t think Kanzz erred in calling these established facts.
To your questioning of whether the asphyxiation came first or the head blow occurred simultaneously with the asphyxiation, I’m not sure who the prominent experts you are mentioning are. So I’ll condense what has been revealed in the last few years. Chief Beckner and Chief Kolar reference the evidence contained in a report by Dr. Lucy Rorke-Adams. We can’t know if another expert would agree with her report because no other TBI pathologist has read it. But Dr. Rorke-Adams was the only expert with a forensic TBI background and a specialty in pediatric pathology to testify to the Grand Jury. A summary of her analysis has been provided by both Kolar and Beckner, and she documented the head blow came first with as much as 45 minutes to 2 hours between the two injuries. Even experts who wondered if the timing between the injuries wasn’t closer together did not disagree that the head blow came first. TMK, there was only one pathologist to differ on which came first, and that was Wecht. His conclusion was based on a perception that there was only a small amount of bleeding. Unfortunately, he was not correct in that perception, nor did he have access to all of the photos or brain tissue slides. (Understand I have a lot of respect for Wecht as a pathologist.) The head blow having arrived first is considered fact since Kolar’s and Beckner’s reveal of this evidence.
It is similar with the issue of prior vaginal injuries. The disbelief that she suffered prior injuries relates to the circumstance that many who dispute this, and not just RST, have legitimate opinions regarding the variance of JB’s hymeneal and vaginal orifices and the reasons for vaginal infections and injuries. This isn’t the thread to discuss all of this, so I’ll only add that the number of qualified medical experts who were part of a panel for the BPD, have weighed in on this and the evidence was definitive. The prior vaginal injuries were verified in Beckner’s Reddit and also in Kolar’s FF. Here’s ST’s question to JR on LKL – ST: And why would pediatric medical experts that the Boulder Police Department brought into this case swear out, via affidavit, that JonBenet had been subjected to prior vaginal trauma?
Since the case will never be heard by a jury who would be the final finder of fact, it’s really not out of bounds to accept the BPD’s work with professionals who either viewed her body or saw photos obtained with special equipment as well as examined tissue slides. Because of the image of the brutality it’s painful to comprehend these injuries, but the BPD determined the head blow first and prior vaginal trauma as facts of this case.