http://web.archive.org/web/20010610040025/www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20010531_27.html

WIRE: 05/30/2001 10:58 pm ET 


JonBenet Detective in Court, Says Was Muzzled
 

DENVER (Reuters) - A police detective blamed for "bungling" the JonBenet Ramsey murder probe could not defend herself against unfair allegations because of a gag order, the officer's lawyer said in opening arguments of her federal civil rights trial on Wednesday.

Linda Arndt, 40, alleges in the civil suit that former Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby and current chief Mark Beckner violated her constitutional right to free speech by not allowing her to refute news reports that said she mishandled the case. 

In opening statements, Arndt's lawyer, Judith Biggs, told the 8-member jury that a "gag order" put on investigators prevented Arndt from countering news accounts that Biggs said were "flat out not true." 

Those reports included stories that Arndt refused to allow FBI agents to enter the Ramsey home and failed to secure other evidence, including a flashlight that could have been used as the murder weapon. 

"It got repeated over and over again in the media that (Arndt) was the bungler in the Ramsey investigation," Biggs said. 

JonBenet Ramsey, 6, was found beaten and strangled to death in the basement of her parents' Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996. Investigators have said the girl's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, are suspects in the murder. The Ramseys say that an intruder killed JonBenet. 

The attorney for the Boulder police, Ted Halaby, told jurors that with the scores of news media covering the story, it was impossible to respond to all the false information, and that Arndt wanted her superiors to challenge criticism that was true. 

"They could not lie to the public because they were aware that Linda Arndt had made mistakes," Halaby said. 

Arndt was the only police detective in the Ramsey home for several hours after Patsy Ramsey called police to report JonBenet was missing and that a ransom note had been found. 

Arndt was criticized for allowing John Ramsey to search the home for his daughter, for moving her body and for not keeping neighbors and family members out of the house to keep them from compromising possible evidence. 

Arndt was removed from the case several months later and resigned from the force in 1999. She now works as a tree trimmer.