Garnett focussed on evidence in Ramsey case

District Attorney-elect Stan Garnett is aiming to set a new tone as the county’s top law enforcement officer.


New DA aims to be more open
Garnett says office should be focused, confident and clear

By Pierrette J. Shields
LONGMONT TIMES

"..Don’t expect him [Garnett] to speak publicly about community controversies, although he plans to make criminal prosecutions more transparent to the public and press. Trying cases will also become a top priority during his administration, he said.

“A district attorney’s office should be a place that is very focused and very confident and very clear on what it is doing,” he said. “I want to help make sure this office obtains this.”

Garnett is inheriting an office that has been awash in controversy since the unsolved murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, whose body was discovered in the basement of her family’s home on Dec. 26, 1996. Despite long dry spells in case developments, the world spotlight shined on the Boulder County Courthouse with renewed wattage in 2006 when Lacy flew in from Thailand a man who claimed responsibility for the child’s violent death. There was no evidence the man, John Mark Karr, had ever been to Boulder, and DNA quickly ruled him out.

Lacy in July publicly said the Ramseys are innocent of any involvement in the homicide and apologized to the family for the years they spent under public suspicion.

Garnett said he doesn’t believe that would prevent his office from bringing charges against the Ramseys if the evidence were to warrant it down the line..."