BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A reporter for a Boulder, Colo., newspaper has sued for access to an indictment handed up in 1999 against the parents of slain 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has joined Charlie Brennan's lawsuit filed Wednesday against Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett, The Daily Camera said. While Brennan is a reporter for the newspaper, the Camera is not a plaintiff in the suit.
The newspaper reported earlier this year a grand jury handed up an indictment charging Patsy and John Ramsey with child abuse resulting in death in late 1999, three years after JonBenet's body was found in the basement of their home. Alex Hunter, the district attorney at the time, refused to sign the indictment and the couple were cleared in 2008, two years after Patsy Ramsey's death from cancer.
No one has ever been convicted of killing JonBenet.
The lawsuit was filed under Colorado's Open Public Records Act.
"The plaintiffs believe ... that the indictment is a criminal justice record that reflects official action by the grand jury, and accordingly that it is subject to mandatory disclosure upon request," Thomas B. Kelley, Brennan's attorney, said in the complaint. "Alternatively, they argue the indictment should be disclosed to the public because such disclosure would serve the public interest in government transparency and not be contrary to the public interest nor cause undue adverse effect upon the privacy of the individual."
