The circus has left town. But don't let that get you down.

We still have the memories.

And, if you look closely, you'll see we still have a few of the clowns hanging around.

Which brings us to the Boulder DA's office. And, yes, like you, I'm surprised it took me five entire sentences to get there.

But it has been a long 12 days - and even longer for those of you unable to avoid watching Nancy Grace.

I did learn one very important lesson from this fiasco, and it's one I want to share with everyone: It turns out you can never ever be too cynical about your elected officials.

And I always thought I was cynical enough. I mean, how do you think I got this job?

And yet, like many of you - like many of you not named Peter Boyles, anyway - I felt sure Boulder DA Mary Lacy had to have something more than a loony confession from an obvious psycho before she'd send her people all the way to Thailand to make an arrest.

I figured she had solid DNA evidence or proof that John Karr was in Boulder at Christmas of 1996 or details from the draft of the ransom note or maybe a glove that actually fits.

She had to have something beyond the ultra-gruesome e-mails. And if you've read the e-mails, you know what I mean by gruesome. You can't blame Lacy for being creeped out. But being a creep and being a murderer apparently aren't always the same thing.

Everyone - at least everyone who has watched even one episode of Law & Order - knows that false confessions are as common as TV homicides.

I know from my e-mails that many non-professionals were skeptical of Karr's confession - and here was the really strange part: Many thought he was somehow too weird to be guilty of killing a 6-year-old girl.

I thought he was just weird enough myself. And I replied, all too confidently, that we shouldn't second-guess Lacy because, particularly given the history of this case, no district attorney in his or her right mind is going to bring the world to Boulder and then come up completely empty.

And yet. Let's review years of empty results.

Ten years ago, the Boulder police set a new standard in fouling up a murder investigation.

Ten years later, the Boulder DA's office set a new standard for most frequent flyer miles in a baseless arrest.

Once, Boulder was a national laughingstock.

Ten years later, it's gone international. And in business class, too, with John Mark Karr (now officially reduced to John Karr; only psycho killers get the three-name treatment) in his infamous champagne toast with the orange-juice-drinking Boulder investigator, as the TV cameras rolled.

It's easy enough to second-guess when a case goes so wrong so publicly.

The governor has already weighed in, of course, with a talk-show-ready line: "Mary Lacy should be held accountable for the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history." He didn't mention he was just back from an extravagant and expensive trip to Jordan.

The talk-radio guys who aren't the governor are making their case as well. Craig Silverman, the ex-prosecutor, already has it down as a case of "massive prosecutorial incompetence." And he's a guy who defended Lacy at the beginning. You can imagine what the others are saying. Not that some lawyers aren't defending her. Scott Robinson, for example, said she had no choice but to bring him to the United States.

I'm sure people are already collecting signatures for a recall. It's that kind of atmosphere and that kind of case. This is Lacy's second high-profile case - you remember CU football team's alleged rape and recruiting scandal - and the only charges she has been able to bring so far are for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

I doubt Lacy will be recalled. I think she'll eventually quit, and because it's America, write a best-selling memoir. Possible title: The King Prawns and I.

Meanwhile, Lacy is fighting back by releasing every piece of "evidence" she has collected short of Karr's dental records. If you look at the "evidence," you can see that Lacy has proved beyond any doubt that Karr is not someone you want anywhere near your child - or anywhere near anyone, for that matter.

Unfortunately, that's all it proves.

Lacy, on the other hand, is guilty as she's bound to be charged.

You can start by blaming her for whoever leaked Karr's arrest. Did this case have to go public before she actually had a case?

You can go next to the fact that she was somehow unable to get DNA from Karr before bringing the circus to Boulder - even though she had a warrant that allowed the DA's office to get all the DNA it needed. (According to the DA's motion to quash the arrest warrant, when Karr consented in Thailand to offer up his (ugh) saliva, the investigators didn't have the kit with them. Excuse me, they were in Thailand. They were there to get his DNA. Where'd they leave the kit - at the karaoke bar?)You can go to the news conference, where much is made of the fact that Lacy said the investigation was in its early stages and that there were "exigent" reasons for an early arrest. She thought by using "exigent" everyone would nod and say she's been to law school, what do we know? In the warrant, she said that Karr was targeting a child in Thailand. But, looking at what we know now, how good a case did she have there?

At the news conference, she also thanked law enforcement for helping to make the arrest - as if to assure everyone the case was broken.

The case is broken, but not in the way she'd hoped. If you believe the intruder theory, you can only ask what kind of credibility the Boulder cops and DA would have when they bring in the next guy.

All I can say is, they'd better have a confession.

littwinm@rockymountainnews.com.

Back to Top