http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ramsey/article/0,1299,DRMN_1296_1734299,00.html
Rocky Mountain News
By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
Click link below for full article
City ducks lawsuit over slaying
Feb 10, 2003 RMN: City ducks lawsuit
"BOULDER - The decision by Boulder District Attorney Mary Keenan to take control of
the JonBenet Ramsey case might not solve a crime, but it spared the city a major lawsuit.
On Oct. 9, Atlanta attorney Lin Wood sent Keenan a letter, protesting that correspondence
he mailed to Boulder police Sept. 16 offering new leads and tips on the 1996 slaying had
been ignored.
After lobbying for the investigation to be put into the hands of "competent, experienced
and objective homicide investigators," Wood then put Keenan on notice about the
expected Ramsey lawsuit.
Advising Keenan that the lawsuit would prove "expensive and time- consuming," Wood
wrote, "I submit that the resources of Boulder government would be better spent
investigating leads and tips than litigating" over the Police Department's "misconduct"
and "inaction" on the case.
With that expected lawsuit, Wood also planned to hold Boulder police accountable for an
alleged campaign of leaks aimed at defaming and discrediting John and Patsy Ramsey,
long the primary focus of the Boulder police investigation.
But on Dec. 20, after a meeting attended by Keenan, Wood and Boulder police Chief Mark
Beckner, it was revealed that Keenan - with Beckner's approval - was taking the case off
Beckner's hands.
Keenan sent Wood a letter that day saying, "We will not exempt the Ramseys from this
investigation," but she also told Wood she believed "the Boulder Police Department has
done an exhaustive and thorough investigation of the Ramseys as potential suspects."
Wood now says his threatened lawsuit won't be filed.
"One of the main goals in (potentially) filing that lawsuit was to try to bring the case out of
the hands of the Boulder Police Department and into the hands of an objective set of
investigators," Wood said. "That goal has been accomplished."
The attorney dismissed the possibility that Keenan's taking over the case was intended, in
part, to spare the city of Boulder and its Police Department a costly and possibly
embarrassing legal battle.
However, Wood said, "I also recognize that a secondary benefit of (Keenan's decision) was
to save the taxpayers of Boulder the expense of litigation over the last six years of
mishandling of this case."