Recent developments in their favor - a federal judge declaring that the evidence points to an intruder, not to the parents, and District Attorney Mary Keenan's endorsement of the intruder theory - should be changing many minds. But I continue to get e-mails, letters and calls from readers who refuse to accept any information that doesn't hang the Ramseys.

I've been watching the JonBenet investigation for 6 1/2 years, and am dumbfounded by the amount of damaging misinformation against the Ramseys that is still being treated as fact. And little wonder, considering that Boulder police strategically and shamelessly either leaked much of it or left it uncorrected. They hoped that public contempt would cause the Ramseys to break down and confess.

Indeed, that might have worked if John and Patsy were the killers. Boulder police tried to prove, first, that John killed JonBenet, then - when that failed - that Patsy did it and John helped cover it up. Because police didn't have the evidence to make their case, they deliberately used lies and misinformation to sway the court of public opinion.

So let's begin setting the record straight, starting with the bed-wetting presumption. Boulder police couldn't find a motive for parents with no violent behavior in their background to kill their child in such a horribly vicious way. At first, they focused on the father, because JonBenet had been sexually assaulted. When that theory fell apart, others were espoused:

Misinformation: JonBenet wet the bed, sending her exasperated mother into a homicidal rage.

Truth: There is no evidence that she wet the bed that night. None of the officers called to the home in the early morning reported finding the sheets either wet or damp. JonBenet's underwear, however, revealed heavy urine saturation. Therefore, it's more logical to conclude that either the sexual assault or the strangulation, both of which occurred in a basement storeroom, provoked the urination.

Misinformation: The body was wrapped in JonBenet's favorite blanket. How would an intruder know that?

Truth: The blanket was a regular blanket that had been placed over her by the killer. It was not a child's security "blankey."

Misinformation: The foreign DNA found in JonBenet's panties is meaningless because it probably came from a worker who coughed or spat into them in the handling process.

Truth: The DNA remains the best piece of evidence. There is little doubt that the DNA, mixed with the blood in the underwear, is the killer's. Boulder police put such a high value on it that they discarded suspect after suspect when DNA matches didn't occur. They refused to discard John and Patsy as suspects, however, even though the DNA matched neither of them.

I believe the main reason the grand jury didn't indict the Ramseys in 1999 is because the foreign DNA wasn't theirs. That's how important this piece of evidence is.

Misinformation: It's obvious the Ramseys did it because all the materials used to torture and kill JonBenet came from their house.

Truth: Most of the materials were brought in to the home. These included a stun gun used to silence JonBenet when she was taken from her bed (the use of the stun gun, incidentally, is an incredible clue that Boulder police chose to ignore), the cord to bind her hands and to use as a ligature to strangle her, and the duct tape to place over her mouth during the sexual assault and strangulation. A paint brush handle used as part of the ligature and the pad and pen used to write the ransom note came from the house.

Misinformation: Patsy's first call after finding the ransom note was to a neighbor or friend, not to police. A truly hysterical mother would call the police immediately.

Truth: No evidence shows that to be the case and no one has come forward claiming to have been called before 911.

Misinformation: The parents lied when they said that Burke (JonBenet's 9-year-old brother) was asleep that morning; he could be heard in the background when Patsy made the 911 call.

Truth: The parents later learned from Burke's grand jury testimony that he had been awakened by his mother's screams but faked being asleep. Until then, they thought he had been asleep. Burke, however, did not get out of bed. (About the tape: Neither experts from the FBI nor the Secret Service could hear anything in the background, let alone Burke's voice. I have listened to the tape, and all I could hear was a very, very hysterical mother sobbing to a 911 dispatcher that her child had been kidnapped. I doubt that any fair-minded person would consider Patsy guilty after hearing the bone-chilling tape. Patsy's panicked cry for help is as real as it gets.)

Misinformation: The Ramseys refused to cooperate with the investigation, something parents would do if they were innocent.

Truth: You be the judge. Police were with the Ramseys 24 hours a day, from 6 a.m. of the day the body was found (Dec. 26) to 2 p.m. Dec. 29, writing down everything they did and said. Police questioned them both on Dec. 27 and John again on Dec. 28. During this critical period of time, police officers said, "The Ramseys have been more than cooperative." Very early in the investigation, John and Patsy agreed to give blood and hair samples, offered to allow searches of both their homes, agreed to answer any questions put to them either in joint or separate interrogations and consented to giving hours of handwriting samples.

Up until January 1998, John wrote many letters to authorities regarding possible leads. He also provided information about his past, which involved an affair in a previous marriage and information about where to find the woman. The Ramseys' personal investigators also turned over many possible leads to police and the DA's office. The parents signed more than 100 release forms allowing police to view personal medical and financial records, even the movies they rented from Blockbuster. The claim that the Ramseys refused to cooperate was probably the police department's biggest lie.

Will the killer ever be found? Sadly, unless a match can be made with the foreign DNA, the case probably never will be solved. But that doesn't mean the court of public opinion - which has been terribly cruel to the Ramseys for far too long - can't come to face the truth and say, "Your Honor, we find the parents innocent."

Information for this column was verified for accuracy by several reliable sources who have been involved in the investigation at various times. Barrie Hartman ([email protected]) ) is a retired Boulder newspaper editor living in nearby Louisville.

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