Don't you think if the R's would have tried to cut a deal with the DA a few days after JB's death, putting it onto BR, that they would have gone through all that they did, maybe even more so? Even if AH would have let them off the hook, their public disgrace over creating a phony kidnapping right down to leaving a RN and getting BPD so wrapped up would have ended everything publicly for them anyway. No, I think they had to play it out the way they did - no concrete evidence against anyone that way.
I agree that the GJ must have been giving BDI a pass, based on the evidence they saw, and instead were allowing for the fact that one of the parents did bear the ultimate responsibility for her death. Their vote to indict on the charges they stated was based on PROBABLE CAUSE. If AH would have been willing to prosecute, by the time they got to trial, the charges could have been far worse, and more defined.
If there was evidence enough that BDI was JB's killer, I would think the GJ would have brought no vote to indict. Because there was a gag order, it would have been easy for them to walk out without ever having to give a reason why they had no indictment. They simply would have declared there was insufficient evidence presented to arrive at a decision to bring charges against anyone at that time.
And also, why would ML in 2006 go through with the JMK fiasco if it was known behind closed doors that BDI? I can't believe her payoff would have been big enough to do that. She took a massive hit to her credibility.
I never thought I'd ever have to backtrack on myself, but in order to share some things with
otg, I'll comment on my Bolded Remarks above:
Yes - they did vote to indict both the parents, and what I probably should have said is that since they could not tie BR to the evidence, and they were not certain which one of the parents must have been responsible for the evidence they did see, they voted to indict both of them.
Tell me,
otg, because I don't recall reading your opinion on this, do you think if BR is responsible, he pulled the ligature tight enough to strangle JB as well as dealt the head blow? Or do you think it possible BR just did the head blow, and one or the other R had to tighten the ligature? Or have you formed an opinion about the ligature as yet?
And, if they saw evidence that BR was the killer, and knew he could not be charged, since there was a gag order, the GJ simply needed to declare to HUNTER that they saw no evidence that allowed them to bring forth an indictment. Yes, Hunter still would have made his public statement, in clear conscience, and we wouldn't have heard another peep.
You could be totally right about ML not knowing what the GJ told Hunter, and her being a Dunce!

eace: but I thought I read somewhere that if a True Bill is issued, it goes into record. Even if Hunter didn't sign off, and then gave his declaration about no charges, wouldn't the vote get entered into record, which ML surely would have known about?? Lots of people think her a very dim bulb, for sure, so if she went ahead and did the JMK thing with enough case evidence knowledge that it was possible BDI, then
let me be the first to chip in :twocents: towards a dunce hat!