ATLANTA – The parents of JonBenet Ramsey are suing Court TV for $70 million, claiming that the cable network falsely named their son, Burke, as a prime suspect in his sister’s murder.
John and Patsy Ramsey contend in the lawsuit filed Friday that 12-year-old Burke Ramsey was defamed by a Court TV program and a related Web site that named him and his parents as the focus of the police investigation of JonBenet’s slaying.
The 6-year-old’s body was found in the basement of her family’s Boulder, Colo., home on Dec. 26, 1996. She was beaten and strangled. The case is unsolved.
The Ramseys, who now live in Atlanta, took issue with the Court TV program Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey, Prime Suspects, which first aired Nov. 5, 1999.
Boulder authorities said before the show aired that Burke was not a suspect, the federal lawsuit says, and the show was repeated even after Boulder District Attorney Alexander M. Hunter said in a sworn affidavit that the boy was not a suspect.
Betsy Vorce, a spokeswoman for Court TV, said the network had not been served with the lawsuit and had no comment.
The lawsuit names Court TV, AOL Time Warner Inc., Time Warner Entertainment Co. and Liberty Media Corp.
