JonBenét Ramsey's family to sue CBS over 'unprofessional attack' on brother Burke during documentary
JonBenét Ramsey's family vows to sue an American network over their "unprofessional television attack", which alleged the child beauty queen was killed by her brother, Burke, over a "midnight pineapple snack".
The lawyer for the Ramsey family said a CBS documentary suggesting she was killed by her brother - who was nine years old at the time - was riddled with “lies, misrepresentations, distortions and omissions.”
L Lin Wood an Atlanta attorney said he had successfully taken action against other media outlets over similar accusations and would be filing a lawsuit on behalf of Burke Ramsey.
“CBS's false and unprofessional attacks on this young man are disgusting and revolting," Wood told Reuters in a telephone interview.
The network responded to Wood with a terse statement: “CBS stands by the broadcast and will do so in court.”
The two-part, four-hour program aired amid a wave of media coverage surrounding the 20th anniversary of the JonBenét case, one of the most sensational unsolved murders in the annals of American crime.
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The body of the blonde, blue-eyed girl, who had been beaten and strangled, was found in the basement of her parents’ Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996, hours after her parents reported JonBenét missing and a ransom note left in the house.
No one has been charged with the six-year-old's murder.
A grand jury voted in 1999 to indict the parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, but then-District Attorney Alex Hunter declined to file charges, citing a lack of evidence.
In the conclusion of the CBS show that aired on Monday, a panel of experts said it was its opinion that Burke Ramsey struck his sister in the head with a heavy object, perhaps not intending to kill her.
The girl’s parents then staged a crime scene to make it appear that an intruder was the culprit, the group of law enforcement, forensic pathologists and other experts concluded.
Wood called CBS “corporate profit mongers” who aired the program during the September "sweeps" for maximum ratings benefit.
In a recent interview on the Dr. Phil talk show, Burke, now 29, denied that he harmed his sister, and said he suspected a pedophile who stalked child beauty pageants was the killer.
However, his body language led many to speculate on what was going through his mind when he couldn't stop smiling after Dr Phil addressed those who doubted his innocence.
Burke said the crush of attention was “a chaotic nightmare” and had turned him into “a very private person".
Wood said a written disclaimer that CBS aired with its show, saying the opinions “represent just some of a number of possible scenarios,” did not go far enough.
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