Posted on 09/21/2006 4:52:58 AM PDT by abb
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Efforts to prosecute one-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr on child pornography charges should not be jeopardized even though his computer that allegedly contained the images was lost, Sonoma County authorities said Wednesday.
Authorities seized the computer from Karr's home in 2001 and copied the entire hard drive onto paper, including the five illicit images, said Sheriff's Department Lt. Dave Edmonds. He said authorities looked for the computer for the past two weeks, but have had no luck.
"We did an exhaustive search. We have probably hundreds of thousands of evidence items and we're certain at this point, through a couple of weeks of effort, that it's not misplaced inside of our property unit," he said.
Karr, 41, has maintained his innocence in the case.
On Tuesday, prosecutors offered Karr a plea deal that would waive three of the five child pornography possession charges against Karr if he pleaded guilty to the two remaining ones. Karr would get credit for time served, would be placed on probation for three years and would be required to register as a sex offender.
"I wonder if that was the impetus of the offer today," Karr's attorney, Robert Amparan, said. "It seems like a pretty embarrassing mistake for the Sheriff's Department to admit."
Assistant District Attorney Larry Scoufos denied any connection between the missing computer and the plea deal offer.
Karr first made headlines when he was arrested last month after making phone calls and writing e-mails suggesting he killed JonBenet, a six-year-old beauty queen, in her Boulder, Colo., home in 1996.
He was returned to the U.S. from Thailand only to have the Ramsey case collapse when DNA failed to connect him to the crime.
>>>If Kreepy Karr has an attorney even marginally competent, they move for dismissal of all charges based upon the broken evidence chain, they ask for a court order compelling the sheriff's department to either produce the computer that was seized or *compensate* Karr for the loss of his personal property. >>>
That's what I was thinking! He should be charged with anything at this point!
>copy c:*.* lpt1
Old DOS guy, eh?.........
yep
Those were the days.
Started out on the ole Tandy TRS-80, Model II with 2 floppy drives and a whopping 64kb of RAM.
My "first" was a Timex-Sinclair with a 16k Extended Ram module, #2 was a Coleco Adam...........
Check E-Bay.
At the time of his arrest, they seized *two* desktop hard-drives and one laptop computer, plus "other equipment" belonging to Karr.
Maybe they're looking for a desktop, when all they had was the HD.
updated news...
http://www.pressdemo.com/EarlyEdition/article_view.cfm?recordID=5074&publishdate=09/22/2006
Karr rejects plea deal in porn case
By KERRY BENEFIELD
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Friday, September 22, 2006
John Mark Karr, the former Sonoma County man who gained global notoriety for claiming he was with 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey when she was killed in 1996, rejected a plea deal that would have made him a free man, according to his lawyer.
The deal, offered Tuesday, would have dropped three of the five child pornography charges Karr faces. Had Karr agreed to plead guilty to the remaining two charges, he would have gotten credit for time already served, been placed on probation and required to register as a sex offender.
The deal was offered on the same day Sonoma County sheriff's officials acknowledged they lost a computer containing images used to charge Karr with possessing child pornography.
Through his attorney, Robert Amparan, Karr has maintained his innocence.
Karr was arrested Aug. 16 in Thailand and brought back to the United States amid worldwide media coverage after his extraordinary admission in the Ramsey slaying.
After Colorado authorities said DNA evidence cleared Karr in the case, Sonoma County took the unusual step of extraditing Karr to face the 5-year-old misdemeanor charges.
Prosecutors have insisted the missing computer does not hurt their case against Karr.
His trial date is set for Oct. 2.
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