A defense attorney for a man accused in a 1994 Boulder killing is seeking records from the early hours of the investigation into the death of JonBenet Ramsey that he says could demonstrate that police at the time were “woefully incompetent,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors announced in September that Michael Clark, 50, would be prosecuted again in connection with the 1994 Boulder killing of Boulder city Marty Grisham after the previous murder conviction was overturned in April, in part because of faulty DNA evidence connected to a statewide scandal. The case is set for a May jury trial.
After serving more than 12 years of a life prison sentence, Clark was released on bail while prosecutors considered whether the case against him should continue. Clark, who has maintained his innocence, was originally convicted in 2012 in Grisham’s death.
A judge this year overturned Clark’s conviction after his attorneys found evidence that DNA testing in the case was mishandled by now-former Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods, one of several problems with the original murder prosecution.
Woods was charged in January with 102 felonies connected to widespread misconduct during DNA testing over her 29-year-career with CBI. Her case is pending.
Adam Frank, Clark’s attorney, filed 12 subpoenas, seeking records from the first 48 hours of the unsolved Ramsey investigation and information about CBI policies related to DNA testing.
The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to void all 12 subpoenas and questioned the relevance of some of the defense’s requests, including the request for records from the Ramsey investigation, according to court documents.
In a response to the DA’s motion, Frank writes that the Boulder Police Department “committed colossal mistakes” when investigating the death of 6-year-old beauty pageant star by failing to conduct searches and collect evidence. Ramsey’s body was found in the basement of the family’s home.
The department “made the exact same sort of colossal mistake” in its investigation into Grisham’s death, Frank argues in the motion, and the subpoenaed records would show that the “exact same types of incompetence” that led the department to fail to solve the Ramsey murder also led them to fail to solve Grisham’s killing.
The defense is also seeking information about DNA tests that were returned invalid or undetermined from August 2009 to August 2011, according to court documents. It also is seeking information on CBI policies from the same period related to invalid and undetermined results, and policies related to having evidence and reference samples on the same plate or workbench.
The case is scheduled for a review hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Boulder County Justice Center.