Alex Hunter

Alex Hunter was the Boulder District Attorney at the time of the killing of JonBenet Ramsey. Between December 26, 1996 and 2001, Hunter was in charge of the District Attorney's office's involvement in the case.

As District Attorney, Hunter facilitated the sharing of information with the Ramseys' legal team (which they described as "trust-building"), the investigation of various suspected intruders, and the reorganization of the casefile around the intruder theory.

In 1998 Hunter and his investigators were publicly accused of bias towards the Ramseys. After an intervention by the Governor and a panel of Colorado District Attorneys, Hunter agreed to convene a Grand Jury and hire a new prosecutor from outside of his office. The Grand Jury voted to charge the Ramseys with multiple felonies, but Hunter refused to take the case to court. The jury's conclusions were made public more than a decade after Hunter's retirement.

The conduct of Hunter's office in this case has been described as "bizarre". Hunter himself has been criticized for his frequent conversations with tabloid journalists during his involvement with case - even at one point attempting to plant false stories in a tabloid alleging sexual misconduct by a member of the Boulder Police.

Hunter has refrained from speaking about the case in recent years, and his latest affidavit relating to this case was revealed to have been written for him by the Ramseys' lawyer Lin Wood.

Early Involvement
Vacation in Hawaii Peter Hofstrom

Though the law does not require prosecutors to provide evidence to any suspect who has not been charged, Hunter's prosecutors arranged for the Ramseys to receive:
 * a copy of the ransom note
 * Police reports from Dec. 26, 1996
 * a copy of the autopsy report
 * photographic negatives of crime scene photographs

In a meeting with the Colorado Attorney General's office, Assistant Attorney General Mary Malatesta specifically advised Alex Hunter not to share any further information with the defense that wasn't absolutely required by law.

After the meeting, Hunter suggested that Chief Trial Deputy District Attorney Peter Hofstrom should call the Ramseys attorneys "in order to maintain and build their trust," according to Steve Thomas.

The FBI told Hunter, "Don't 'ask the Ramseys' for anything, just issue the warrants and subpoenas and take the evidence."

Hunter lated defended the actions of his office, saying, "Those things were given to the Ramseys in order to have an interview ... in order to advance a case that was totally stalled."

Intruder Suspects
Throughout the early months, his office strongly encouraged the investigation of suspected intruders, while passing police reports and other information to the Ramseys, who still had not participated in formal interviews.

McReynolds and Fleet White

Re-organization of the Casefile
Three months into the investigation, Hunter orchestrated a comprehensive overhaul and re-investigation of the entire case-file by Lou Smit, which shifted the focus onto the "intruder theory" favored by the Ramseys.

Ongoing Investigations of Intruders
Chris Wolf, Fleet White, Nancy Krebs

Grand Jury
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Hunter refused to sign the indictment and made the following public announcement:

Oct 13 1999: "The Boulder County grand jury has completed its work and will not return. No charges have been filed. ... The Ramsey family lives in a nightmare. There has been no end to the public lynching and speculation which marred this case from the beginning. ... The grand jurors have done their work extremely well, bringing to bear all their legal powers, life experiences and shrewdness. ... I must report to you that I and my prosecution task force believe we do not have sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of charges against anyone who has been investigated at this time. Under no circumstances will I or any of my advisers, prosecutors, the law-enforcement officers working on this case, or the grand jurors discuss grand-jury proceedings, today or forever, unless ordered by the court."

Public Appearances
In 2000

Post-Retirement
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Affidavit Controversy
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Leadership Style
Hunter was concerned with his public image.

Hunter often gave contradictory statements about his beliefs and intentions to different people.

VAN SUSTEREN: Let me turn a corner to the issue of speaking to the "Globe."

HUNTER: Right.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did you do that?

HUNTER: I did that.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK, and why did you do that?

HUNTER: Because they had a million-dollar reward and they were getting hundreds of tips a week, which they were sorting through and giving to me. [...] In fact, the "Globe," with their million-dollar reward, I hoped would break the case. [...] So I had very open communication with several of the "Globe" reporters. I never met with them when they didn't have something to give to me.

Defenses of Hunter
Denver criminal defense attorney Scott Robinson said there is no question that the information given to the Ramseys helped them prepare a stronger defense, whether they are guilty or innocent. But Robinson noted that the Ramseys have a constitutional right not to talk to police and that most defense attorneys strongly advise their clients not to talk. "Sometimes you have to pay a price to get information. ... That doesn't mean it was wrong," Robinson said. "That seemed like a reasonable bargain, considering the evidentiary value of a formal statement, even if it's months later."

Craig Truman, a former Colorado chief deputy public defender, said the law does not require prosecutors to preserve evidence for suspects who have not been charged. But he said it's still a wise practice for prosecutors to allow them to see it. "What it does is cleverly eliminate any argument from the defense that it wasn't fair or proper," Truman said. If the prosecutor does not let a suspect's attorney see evidence before it is destroyed, the prosecutor "runs a risk of the having the destruction of the evidence come back to bite him," Truman said.