Federal judge dismisses JonBenet Ramsey detective's lawsuit

By The Associated Press

06.13.01

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Linda Arndt

(Editor's note: Former police Detective Linda Arndt on July 20 appealed the dismissal of her case to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.)

DENVER — A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former Boulder police detective who said her bosses unfairly blamed her for mistakes in the JonBenet Ramsey investigation.

Linda Arndt failed to prove the chiefs violated her First Amendment rights by preventing her from commenting on allegations that she bungled the investigation, U.S. District Judge William Downes ruled yesterday, after two weeks of testimony.

Arndt, 40, was the first detective to arrive at the Ramsey home on Dec. 26, 1996, after the 6-year-old child beauty queen was reported missing and then found strangled. For almost three hours, Arndt was the only detective at the house.

She was criticized for allowing John Ramsey to search the home without an accompanying police officer and for placing a blanket over his daughter's body, possibly contaminating evidence. She also was criticized for not immediately taking statements from the parents.

Arndt was removed from the case five months later and resigned in 1999. No charges have been filed in the killing.

"From the beginning, we believed it to be an ill-conceived lawsuit that was neither in the interest of Linda Arndt, the Boulder Police Department or the serious ongoing criminal investigation into the murder of JonBenet Ramsey," said Ted Halaby, who represented former Police Chief Tom Koby, current Police Chief Mark Beckner and the city of Boulder.

The chiefs and the city maintained that the highly publicized investigation would have been compromised had police spoken publicly in Arndt's defense.

Arndt claimed a partial victory. "My civil suit finally allowed some truths to come out that were kept from coming out in the past," she said, without elaborating.

Her attorney, A. Bruce Jones, said he was preparing an appeal. He said the lawsuit helped publicize Arndt's argument that she had done a credible job despite being "abandoned" at the scene.

Update

Federal appeals court to take up JonBenet Ramsey detective's case
Judge had dismissed officer's lawsuit accusing her bosses of making her a scapegoat, preventing her from speaking to press to defend herself.  09.19.02