Why did the District Attorney's office convene a Grand Jury?

[gumshoe1]

It's my understanding that many years ago, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office convened a Grand Jury, and the Grand Jury indicted John and Patsy Ramsey on charges that were something like child endangerment or something instead of murder. But the Boulder County District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute John and Patsy on the charges that the Grand Jury indicted John and Patsy on. If the District Attorney's Office was not going to prosecute John and Patsy on the charges that John and Patsy were indicted for, why did the District Attorney's Office convene a Grand Jury in the first place?

 

[AuDHD]

It's my understanding that many years ago, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office convened a Grand Jury, and the Grand Jury indicted John and Patsy Ramsey on charges that were something like child endangerment or something instead of murder. But the Boulder County District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute John and Patsy on the charges that the Grand Jury indicted John and Patsy on. If the District Attorney's Office was not going to prosecute John and Patsy on the charges that John and Patsy were indicted for, why did the District Attorney's Office convene a Grand Jury in the first place?

in the hopes they would find the mythical intruder. When they didn’t, and could only find evidence the ramseys had endangered her… I guess the prosecution decided no one would be tried for it bc they refused to prosecute their buddies the Ramseys. Infuriating.

 

[gumshoe1]

in the hopes they would find the mythical intruder. When they didn’t, and could only find evidence the ramseys had endangered her… I guess the prosecution decided no one would be tried for it bc they refused to prosecute their buddies the Ramseys. Infuriating.

Frankly, your answer makes no sense to me. Even if there were an intruder, how would having a Grand Jury hearing cause the District Attorney's office to find the intruder? If there were an intruder, the intruder would be identified through investigative detective work, not a Grand Jury hearing.

 

[AuDHD]

Frankly, your answer makes no sense to me. Even if there were an intruder, how would having a Grand Jury hearing cause the District Attorney's office to find the intruder? If there were an intruder, the intruder would be identified through investigative detective work, not a Grand Jury hearing.

have you read the book that James kolar wrote? The DAs office was grasping at straws to exonerate the family. Because the grand jury only found cause to charge the parents with something, the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute. Because their friends with the Ramsay’s and didn’t want to upset them. In fact when Kolar was in charge of the investigation for the DA’s office, he wanted to subpoena more medical and phone records from the Ramsey’s, but the DAs office said they did not want to upset their friends the Ramsay’s by asking for more information.

So my point above was simply that the DAs office never intended to prosecute any Ramseys. I think whoever ordered the grand jury was hoping that they were gonna find some sort of cause to indict somebody else. Or they wanted to look like they were taking things seriously I don’t know, but they never had any intention of going after the Ramseys, it seems.

 

[CloudedTruth]

The short answer to this question is that DA Hunter's hand was forced into convening a Grand Jury.

After months of investigation and significant infighting between police and the DA's office, there was a lot of pressure coming from all directions to convene a Grand Jury. Hunter was hesitant. I'll go further than that, Hunter did not want to convene a Grand Jury. He wanted the police investigators to make a case of evidence collected so far and to prove to him that a Grand Jury was really needed. Significant to note that DA Hunter was at the core of non-cooperation with the investigation, refusing to sign subpoenas, leaking information to the press which portrayed the police in a negative light, and all around delays that negatively impacted the investigation.

The Whites were pushing for a special prosecutor to be appointed and a Grand Jury. The police were pushing for the same, so was the media and the general public. There was pressure for Hunter to be fired for what was considered to be his ongoing obstruction of the investigation. He was publicly accused of prosecutorial malfeasance. He stalled as long as he could, but when it became clear that his job was in jeopardy, he finally agreed. There were two incidences that also served as the final push. The resignation letter of Steve Thomas which roundly criticized the DA and his office for their handling of the case, as well as the letter from Priscilla and Fleet White which also brought attention to DA Hunter's consistent delays in making a decision to convene a GJ as well as their dismay at the departure of Det. Steve Thomas who left as a result of the meddling of the DA and his office.

Sadly for the case, by the time the Grand Jury was in place so much time had been lost. The subpoena powers were diminished by the fact that some records were no longer available, memories had faded, etc.

 

[Lebowski]

curious... it sounds like the whites are suspicious of the ramseys. did they say they witnessed something that made them suspicious? or was it just their feeling and/or the same evidence everyone else sees? or have they not said which?

forgive me if these are dumb questions, my knowledge of the case is patchy.

 

[CloudedTruth]

curious... it sounds like the whites are suspicious of the ramseys. did they say they witnessed something that made them suspicious? or was it just their feeling and/or the same evidence everyone else sees? or have they not said which?

forgive me if these are dumb questions, my knowledge of the case is patchy.

The Whites’ police interviews and Grand Jury interviews remain sealed. What we know is they were very vocal about the Ramseys lack of cooperation with the police investigation. Did that raise some concerns and some red flags for them? I can only imagine that it did. It also led to the Ramseys dropping the friendship and implying to police that the Whites needed to be looked at.

To my knowledge, they have never said they witnessed anything suspicious. But they were more knowledgeable about the family dynamics than others due to their close friendship. They have never made any accusations against the Ramseys. Just voiced concerns and frustration about the lack of cooperation and the handling of the case by the DA who seemed to be cooperating more with the Ramsey defense team than the police investigation. The Whites were not the only ones to feel that way, they were just the most vocal. Which resulted in DA Hunter pulling some underhanded shenanigans with the Nancy Krebb’s debacle in an attempt to discredit them.