TV report: Ramseys to cooperate if indicted

Scripps Howard News Service

BOULDER, Colo. -- Attorneys for John and Patsy Ramsey are making arrangements for "a plan of cooperation" with prosecutors should one or both parents be indicted in the slaying of their daughter, JonBenet, according to a media report.

The report by Fox News fueled widespread rumors that the Ramseys, who have been under suspicion in their daughter's death, were on the verge of turning themselves in or that the couple already had been arrested. Suzanne Laurion, a spokeswoman for the Boulder County District Attorney's Office, said rumors that an arrest already had taken place were absolutely false, but she declined to comment on whether a letter from any Ramsey attorney had been received. No news agency has obtained a copy of such a letter. Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant said it is common for attorneys anticipating an arrest to work out a plan for their clients to turn themselves in for booking procedures to keep the process civil and to show cooperation. If an indictment were planned, "it would be surprising if it didn't happen," Grant said of the practice. Despite the rumors and speculation, the sheriff's department wasn't expecting any arrest related to the Ramsey case and hadn't been briefed on any plans for the Ramseys to turn themselves in, Sheriff George Epp said. "I haven't heard anything, except from reporters who are speculating." Ramsey attorneys didn't return phone calls, but have said in the past that the Ramseys were fully willing to cooperate with the grand jury and with the district attorney's office. JonBenet Ramsey, 6, was found beaten and strangled in her family's home on Dec. 26, 1996. Her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, have been the focus of the police investigation, although they have repeatedly proclaimed they didn't cause their daughter's death.

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