On December 6, 2022, the Boulder Police Department issued a media release which began with the headline, “Internal Audit Discovers Officer Misconduct; Results in Discipline for Five Officers and Policy Changes.” The media release went on to announce:
The Boulder Police Department has concluded an internal investigation process that resulted in a determination of officer misconduct in the Investigations Unit. The city and police department are sharing these findings to be transparent with the community about what occurred and the multiple ways the agency addressed the issue.”
The issue, according to the media release, was discovered in July 2022, when:
department officials became aware of cases assigned to a particular detective that had not been investigated or investigated fully between 2019 and the present."
The police chief, the media release stated:
immediately brought it to the attention of the Professional Standards Unit and the Independent Police Monitor, with allegations of several different rule/policy violations made against five officers: the detective and four others within his chain of command. A subsequent internal Professional Standards Unit investigation sustained the violations against all five officers.”
While the media release did not identify which cases had not been “investigated or fully investigated” two of the five officers who received discipline were Investigations Commanders in charge of the JonBenét Ramsey Homicide Investigation, Commanders Thomas Trujillo and Barry Hartkopp. The media release stated that:
On Nov 1, the following discipline was imposed: Commander Tom Trujillo received an involuntary transfer to another division and a three-day suspension without pay; this officer was also placed on a Performance Improvement Plan. Commander Barry Hartkopp was given a one-year letter of reprimand and is receiving additional training.”
Commander Hartkopp, then a sergeant in the Investigations Unit, represented the Boulder Police Department in a meeting on July 26, 2019, which the Smit Family Team had scheduled with the Boulder District Attorney, Michael Dougherty. Commander Tom Trujillo granted a second meeting with the Smit Family Team, represented by Cindy Smit Marra (Lou Smit’s daughter) and me, which was held in the Boulder Police Department on September 18, 2020. DA Michael Dougherty also attended that meeting.
The purpose for both of those meetings was to update Boulder law enforcement officials on the progress being made with our team’s independent DNA collection efforts and share information on other persons of interest who should be pursued and items of physical evidence which should be reevaluated for DNA comparison. Our team provided investigative leads which should be pursued, identified private DNA labs willing to work with the Boulder police detectives, and we offered to pay for the DNA analysis from our JonBenét Ramsey GoFundMe Account.
After several weeks had passed, I sent an email and called Commander Trujillo’s office, and received no reply. On October 5, 2020, I called Police Chief Maris Harold, to request an in-person meeting, to inform her of what appeared to be an unwillingness to fully investigate the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. That afternoon I received a phone call from Commander Trujillo, who informed me he was returning my phone calls to Chief Harold’s office and his office. He asked if my meeting request was regarding Lou Smit’s “Intruder Theory” and when I replied yes, he informed me that the Boulder Police Department would no longer grant any request for meetings with me or the Smit Family and then reminded me I was retired (a fact of which I was already somewhat aware).
Since Commanders Trujillo and Hartkopp were two of the five officers disciplined for misconduct within the Boulder Investigations Unit, it stands to reason that if they were having difficulty managing their caseload, that there was little interest in following up on the JonBenet Ramsey homicide investigation, now over 25 years old.
The December 6, 2022, media release concluded by assuring the public that in addition to imposing discipline, the department has taken significant steps to address the situation and prevent it from reoccurring. The Police Chief concluded her remarks with, “Our department understands the tremendous responsibility it has to investigate reported crimes diligently and in a timely manner. This is a sacred trust our community has place in us. We take this responsibility seriously.”
JonBenét Ramsey
The Smit Family Team hopes the words of Chief Harold are not hollow and with the proper investigative oversight in place, progress can finally be made with the JonBenét Ramsey homicide investigation.
I’m very angry that the BPD is not using the term technology available to them. This police department along with the Torrance Police Department in California on a early 1980s murder of a teenage girl. Both cities need to step it up a few notches as the citizens are waiting for results as most people are aware of the DNA and genealogy data bases are available. Paragon Nano Labs can give faces to the perp. My God, why don’t they want to solve these???
The BPD are clearly stalling the investigation or they would happily meet with Smit Family Team and accept their generous offer to pay for DNA testing. Instead BPD is non responsive and unwilling to help to bring this case over the finish line and bring closure to the Ramsey family. They bobbled this case from minute 1. What detective parks a marked car in front of a home with a kidnapping? What law enforcement individual tells a father to search the premises? What type of law enforcement agency doesn’t protect the crime scene and allows friends to freely traipse through the home and handle the ransom note? The BPD did all these things.
BPD had foreign DNA 2 1/2 weeks after the murder(which excluded all Ramsey family members), there was an open window in the basement with a hard shell suitcase below, a shoe scuff mark on the wall and fibers from JonBenet’s pajamas from that day inside that suitcase? Why? It completely defies logic that this wasn’t an intruder.
BPD grow a spine and work with Smit Family and acknowledge you were WRONG. Patsy and John Ramsey are clearly loving, wonderful parents who loved all their children and could no more strangle JonBenet than fly to the moon. According to Burke, they never raised their voices or struck them in any way, EVER. JonBenet’s panties were wet, but not her bed. This was obviously caused by the taser which left the burn marks on her face and back.
This case will be solved despite your (BPD) stonewalling….it will be solved soon. Now think how you could redeem yourselves if you were the ones to do that. “We were wrong, it wasn’t the Ramsey’s, it was an intruder and DNA confirms it was ________”. Come on BPD, you can do this. Work with the Smit Family and the FBI and GET IT DONE. Exhume the body of the junk yard man who killed himself the day after Alex Hunters Press conference in 1997. The one whose body was found with HiTech boots and a stun gun in his possession at the time of his death. The one who told a co worker he’d love to know what it felt like to smash a human scull in (JonBenet’s scull had an 8” gash from a blow to her little head). The one who owned a long heavy flashlight like the one found on the Ramsey kitchen counter (which they did not own). Get his DNA now. Smit Family MAY offer to pay for that too if you simply asked them and actually collaborated with them. Come on…you can do it….do it for sweet JonBenet.
After reading this book, it almost makes me wonder if BPD doesn’t know who did it already, or if one of their own was somehow involved. I don’t want to believe it, but it would explain all of the stonewalling going on, starting with them not wanting to listen to Lou.