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| Colorado reporter suing to make secret indictment of JonBenet Ramsey’s parents public |
John Ramsey and his wife, Patsy, holds an advertisement promising a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer of their 6-year-old daughter, JonBenet, during an interview in 1997.
A Colorado journalist and an advocacy group are suing prosecutors to find out why a grand jury wanted to indict the parents of slain pageant tot JonBenet Ramsey following her murder in 1996.
A Boulder County grand jury voted to indict John and Patsy Ramsey on charges of child abuse in 1999, but prosecutors refused to try the case, the Boulder Daily Camera reported in January.
The indictment was never made public.
On Wednesday, Daily Camera reporter Charlie Brennan and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a lawsuit against Boulder D.A. Stan Garnett to compel him to release the indictment, citing a state criminal justice records act, the newspaper reported.
The lawsuit argued that the release of the document "would serve the public interest in government transparency."A grand jury voted to indict the 6-year-old's parents on charges of child abuse, but the prosecutor at the time did not go forward with the case, citing lack of evidence.
Brennan and the Daily Camera have made two previous requests to have the indictment released, but were shot down both times.
The request was the latest wrinkle in the legal tussle over the pageant tyke's 16-year-old murder case.
Then-District Attorney Alex Hunter refused to prosecute John and Patsy Ramsey because he wasn't certain he could get a conviction.
But he never mentioned that the grand jury indicted them on the charge of child abuse resulting in death, a felony that carries a potential penalty of between four and 48 years in jail.
JonBenet was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her family's home on Christmas Day in 1996.
Her parents were finally deemed innocent in 2008 — two years after Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer at 49.
Garnett told the Daily Camera Wednesday that his office would respond to the lawsuit in court.
"Protecting the integrity of the grand jury process is important to every district attorney," he said.
The Ramsey family has not commented on the suit.
