Sunday, August 27, 2006

Gag Order Just In Time...

...To keep the Boulder authorities from looking like bigger jerks than they already are...

"Prosecutors in JonBenet Ramsey's decade-old murder are poring over eight photographs that John Mark Karr's brother says prove he was in Georgia at the time of the slaying - even though he is not pictured in them and there is no time stamp on them.

Michael Karr gave authorities pictures after they flew to Norcross, Ga., on Tuesday. Investigators grilled Michael and his wife for four hours, his attorney, Gary Harris, told The Post.

Relatives insist John Karr took the pictures at a family Christmas party in Atlanta in 1996, meaning he couldn't have been in Boulder when JonBenet was killed on Dec. 26 that year.

Although John Karr does not appear in any of the images, Harris told The Post that all the relatives who were at the party insist he was there and was behind the camera.

"They all remember him being there," Harris said.

"He never missed a Christmas - not once. In 1996, John was there with his wife. They always had Thanksgivings and Christmases together."

The photos were not dated, but Harris said it was clear they were from 1996 because they feature Michael Karr's baby, who was born 13 days before Christmas that year.

They also gave investigators a thank-you note that John Karr's then-wife, Laura, wrote to Michael and his wife, Reneau.

"We had a great time," Harris said the note read, insisting the "we" meant Laura and John Karr.

A source at the Boulder District Attorney's Office told the Daily Camera newspaper that DA Mary Lacy ordered investigators to track down relatives after reports circulated of family members insisting Karr had been with them at the time JonBenet was killed.

Prosecutors had learned of Karr's name just five days before he was arrested in Thailand and confessed to the murder. They had no DNA evidence linking him to the case, a source told the Daily Camera, and appear to have focused on Karr as a suspect because he had told others of elements of the crime that had never been made public.

Investigators so far have been unable to place Karr in Colorado at the time of the killing, but have contacted a man who claims to remember seeing a man resembling Karr at the Boulder bus station in the early-morning hours of Dec. 26, 1996, the Rocky Mountain News reported.

The revelations came as a Boulder County judge issued a gag order forbidding all authorities from publicly discussing the case."

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