BOULDER, COLORADO - The former police detective who wrote a book accusing John and Patsy Ramsey of killing their daughter has agreed to pay them an undisclosed amount of money to settle a libel lawsuit. <br>
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Ex-detective Steve Thomas, his co-author, Don Davis, and publisher St. Martin's Press are participating in the settlement, Ramsey attorney L. Lin Wood said. He would not say how the three will divide the payment. <br>
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``The settlement agreement is a repudiation of Steve Thomas' theory,'' Wood said Wednesday. ``I think it clearly is a vindication of the Ramseys.'' <br>
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The Ramseys filed a civil libel and defamation lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta in March 2001, alleging that Thomas made false accusations about the couple in a book he co-authored and in television interviews promoting the book, titled ``JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation.'' <br>
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In the book, Thomas theorized that Patsy Ramsey killed her daughter in a fit of rage and then tried to make the death look like a botched kidnapping. Thomas accused John Ramsey of participating in the cover-up. <br>
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The lawsuit sought $80 million in damages. <br>
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Wood called the settlement a victory for the Ramseys and a repudiation of a theory naming them as the killers of their 6-year-old daughter at their Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996. <br>
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Police have said JonBenet's parents, who now live in Atlanta, remain under an umbrella of suspicion, but no one has been charged in her death. A grand jury in 1999 disbanded without issuing an indictment. <br>
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Thomas' attorneys, Daniel Petrocelli and Chuck Diamond of Los Angeles, did not return calls seeking comment. Thomas' spokeswoman was unable to reach him. <br>
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Wood said that the libel claim was a gamble for the Ramseys, who would have had to prove their innocence to win the case. That the defendants decided to pay money is vindication for the Ramseys, Wood said. <br>
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``They didn't sue this case under any false impressions, that it would be easy or worth millions,'' he said. ``They sued this case as a matter of principle. A man wrote a book accusing Patsy of murder, and John of covering it up, and profited off a child's death. And win, lose or draw, they were not going to tolerate it.'' <br>
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There are four defamation cases related to the killing still pending in court: two on behalf of JonBenet's brother, Burke Ramsey, and claims by a former housekeeper and a Boulder journalist the Ramseys identified as suspects in their book.
