Tom Koby

Tom Koby was the chief of the Boulder Police Department for the first year and a half of the Ramsey investigation. Known for his "laid-back" leadership style, Koby was harshly criticized by his own officers for allowing the District Attorney's office to dominate the investigation.

Tom Koby {{{caption}}}

Personal information Role in the Case: Former Detective

With Koby's permission, the DA's office handed over police reports and evidence to the Ramsey family before they had been interviewed. Koby also provided the entire case file to the DA's investigator Lou Smit for "indexing". Smit proceeded to rearrange the entire file around the "intruder theory" and fill it with his own theories of "suspicious" details in crime scene photographs.

In 1998, after a vote of no confidence by officers in the Boulder Police, Koby stepped down and was replaced by Mark Beckner.

Day One

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Re-investigation by the DA's office

Hunter request access to the entire casefile in February 1997. He said he merely wanted to "index" it to make it more organized.

Koby agreed as long as Hunter did not second-guess or reinvestigate.

By May 31, 1997, the police had submitted approximately 8000 pages of documents to the District Attorney's office.

Defenses of Hunter

In January 1998, after Fleet White publicly accused Alex Hunter and the District Attorney's office of bias towards the Ramseys, Koby defended Alex Hunter.

Governor Roy Romer cited Chief Koby's input as a main reason he had not removed Hunter from the case: "Among the advice I received was from the Boulder police chief, who said that this action was not needed and would not be helpful, because the investigation was proceeding and had not yet been turned over to the district attorney."

Removing Hunter from the case, Koby said, would be "very much inappropriate" because, as Romer points out, the district attorney has not refused to prosecute anybody. One year later Alex Hunter refused to prosecute John and Patsy Ramsey.

Criticism of Koby

Steve Thomas referred to Koby as a "quiet accomplice" of the DA's office.

A senior official in Hunter's office, Bill Wise, acknowledged there was "a close relationship between Tom Koby and Alex Hunter".