Murdered beauty queen's parents lose defamation suit (Ramsay vs Fox)

[rooboy]

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Fox News filed by the parents of murdered child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, saying the network did not defame the couple or their son.

The lawsuit is the first defamation case against the media that the Ramseys have lost.

"While the December 2002 broadcast appears to plaintiffs not to have been fair and balanced towards them, it was not defamatory," US District Judge Phillip Figa said in a 16-page order that dismissed the case.

John and Patsy Ramsey and their son Burke sued Fox, which is owned by News Corp, for defamation they say occurred during a December 2002 report marking the sixth anniversary of JonBenet's death.

The six-year-old girl's slaying has never been solved even though the case gripped America and was discussed ad nauseam on talk radio and cable television.

Her body was discovered on the morning of December 26, 1996, in the family's home in Boulder, Colorado.

The Ramseys, who now live in Michigan, say the report defames them because it says the parents and Mr Burke were the only ones in the home the night of the murder, and that "there has never been any evidence to link an intruder to her brutal murder."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1278780.htm

[NJCher]

1. uh oh

Bad news for John Ramsey. These lawsuits are the only way he's been able to make a living since the murder.


Cher

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Time for Patsy to start "pagaenting" again...

Personally, I'm sure she'd win the "Ms Stage-Parent-America" crown...

[The Zanti Regent]

14. Is this John and Patsy's newest progency?

http://www.jojoonline.com/main.html

Remember, this is the new teen queen who will sing with Kid Rock at the Bush Bash...

[FlemingsGhost]

3. Who writes these idiotic headlines? "Beauty queen?" Puleeze.

She was 6 fuckin' years old.

Folks, The Ramseys killed their daughter long before she was murdered.

[ClintonTyree]

4. You hate to see anyone win that law suit...............

on one hand you've got FAUX, on the other the Ramsey's. Isn't there some way to find them BOTH culpable?

[NVMojo]

5. sadly, there was an excellent investigative special on last month ...

can't remember if it was 60 minutes or what but it was revealed that there were over 60 known sex offenders, majority child molesters, living within a few miles radius of the Ramsey home in Colorado at the time of the murder. And there was another little girl who survived an invasion into her room from a man they connected with other child molestation acts because one of her parents heard something and got up ...the asshole jumped out the window ...this was just within a few weeks of the Ramsey girl's murder.

The investigation turned up a cover up of some sort ...it was really disgusting to watch ....cops at their finest ...yeah, right...

[Metrix]

6. There is NO proof the parents were involved

The disgusting media saw a buck to be made. Local radio host Peter Boyles thought he would be the go-to guy on the case and that it would be his ticket to the big time. He insanely ranted on the case for months. Good Catholic boy Dan Caplis was on board. Slime ball Craig Silverman was clamoring for attention.

There isn't enough money in the world to compensate this family for what they went through.

[0007]

20. Everyone is welcome to their opinion, but the Ramsey's

are as guilty as they come. Pasty knows very well what happened. It was money and political connections that saved their ass. If it wasn't for Hal Haddon, they'd be doing time. Hal Haddon was the same attorney that took Kobe Bryant's rape case. He beat that one too.

[Skittles]

7. I don't believe the Ramseys killed their child

I just do not see any kind of motive and what a bunch of Keystone cops the Boulder police were. But I do think parading a child around like a painted up hooker amounts to child abuse. Poor JonBenet - that little girl has never seen any kind of justice.

[underpants]

8. I always thought it was the brother

This "random breakin" stuff is crap. Then again if some sicko was going to do that parading your daughter around as a painted up hooker didn't help.

[Skittles]

15. I remember the parents said the boy was asleep

yet he can clearly be heard on the background of the 9/11 call.

[NJCher]

9. John Ramsey has a PR machine equal to the republicans

I followed this case for years. Right from the very beginning, there were overt attempts to manage public opinion. If you recall, immediately after the murder a PR company was hired to answer questions. Now I can understand not wanting to answer questions about your daughter's murder but look back over some of the more notorious murders and ask yourself how many of those in question hired a PR firm.

Those last few shows that were aired re the murder were the product of the Ramsey PR effort.

I believe the Ramseys killed their daughter.


Cher

[0007]

21. So do I! The Ramsey's are pure slim.

[yinkaafrica]

22. How about that ransom letter

The ransom letter, supposedly written by 'a small foreign faction,' told the Ramsey's to 'use that good southern common sense,'
a phrase often used by Patsy Ramsey.
If she did not have a hand in it, she knows exactly who did.
I would look no farther than the Ramsey household.

[Obamarama]

10. This falls squarely within the realm of "WHO CARES?"

I'm surprised nobody has tried yet to turn this sick, tragic circus into a TV reality show.

[Rican1]

19. Fox and the Ramseys deserve each other

[UTUSN]

11. Let's See: Faux-RAMSEYs. RAMSEYs-Faux. My Head's 'sploding n/t

[Renew Deal]

12. Beauty queen?

She was freaking 6. That's just absurd.

[Coventina]

16. Same thought here!

Good Lord, our journalism gets worse every day!!!!

[TahitiNut]

13. I can't recall a more extreme example of child exploitation.

The Ramsey's, the media, the public ... pruriently feasting on the carcass of a 6-year-old for her entire life and afterwards. It's ghoulish in the extreme.

[underpants]

17. True-isn't the story now older than she ever lived to be?

I know that is the case for a lot of things but seriously no one knew who she was so why all the interest? Oh yeah the missing/dead blonde thing.

[NJCher]

18. for avid crime solvers

This is the ultimate mystery. There are elements of this story that are, to my knowledge, unknown to any other crime.

Granted, today there are far more matters of concern. But remember,this happened back in 1996.


Cher

[NYC]

23. Were the Ramseys ever prosecuted?

?

[LiberalHeart]

24. Case went to Grand Jury; NO indictment; They are NOT GUILTY.

DNA found under JonBenet's fingernails and mixed with her blood in her panties does not match anyone so far connected with the case. It is male DNA. Find the owner of the DNA and you've found the killer.

In a civil case, a judge found the preponderance of the evidence to support an intruder theory; it does not support the theory that the parents or brother did it.

The current DA is no longer investigating the parents; she is pursuing an unknown intruder or intruders.

The legendary detective Lou Smit, formerly an investigator with the DA's office (he resigned because his colleagues at that time refused to follow the evidence, which he believes leads to an intruder), continues to work the case without pay, as does PI Ollie Gray and others. Those who have seen the evidence know the family was not involved in this crime. They were convicted only in the media which poisoned public opinion from the earliest hours of the case. The Ramseys should have won their case against Faux.

[Corgigal]

25. They know the DNA

is of a white male. The only reason the Ramsey's aren't in jail is because of their wealth. I also don't believe they used a garrote to kill their child.

Awful police work and shows how far the national media can be used for govt purposes.

[CornField]

26. What happened with the other similar case?

It wasn't too long ago that it was revealed that there was another case either in or near Boulder in which another young girl was molested and murdered, in a very similar setting to the Ramsey case. I believe this happened a few months prior to or after the Ramsey case... can't remember.

Edited because I found a link: http://courttv.com/news/2004/1220/ramsey_ap.html

"The report also discusses parallels between the girl's death and the sexual assault of another Boulder girl on September 14th, 1997, who took dance lessons at the same school as JonBenet."