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	Vol.7, No 31, October 21, 1999
	Money makes celebs unaccountable Celebrity crimes make the worst cases usual, pressured to find a suspect and hounded by the media, police often make the errors that cause the case to fall apart. Mark Blackburn We saw it in the O.J. Simpson case and now have seen it in the JonBenet Ramsey. After three years and millions of dollars spent in investigation, the Colorado grand jury decided last week that no charges were to be filed against any of the multiple suspects. In the early hours of Christmas morning in 1996, police received a call from the family. They were told a ransom note was found and that a kidnapping was suspected. Police, following that premise, allowed friends and family members unrestricted access to the house. Eight hours later the missing girls father found her dead in the basement, bound and gagged. He claims to have removed the gag, the blanket covering her and then carried the body upstairs before informing police and federal agents, still investigating a kidnapping on the premises, that he had found the girl. It was announced within 24 hours of discovering the body that the family had a lawyer and a private investigator looking into the matter and would no longer be cooperating fully authorities. Imagine what would happen if you refused to cooperate with the CHP on a simple speeding stop, or failed to give information when asked in court. You would be dropped in a jail cell so quick you wouldn't have time to buy soap on a rope. We, as a society, seek justice for all, not just the rich, whose celebrity status and money seem to get them involved in the strangest possible crimes. We should charge the family with obstruction in refusing to assist police, charge the father with tampering with evidence, charge the mother with writing the ransom note, because it was later discovered that it was in her handwriting. Destroy the idea that money buys justice. A six-year-old girl is dead and no amount of money will change that. Mark Blackburn is the photo editor for the Daily Forty-Niner and a criminal justice major at Cal State Long Beach.		Study abroad fair hits CSULB   Students learn about life from dead   Spirits of past passengers haunt ship Scared stiff   Beer too costly   Money makes celebs unaccountable Faces of Halloween   The Flying Dutchman   Friendly ghost may haunt downtown furniture store   Halloween's origin not so frightening Fall 99 ISSUES DAILY 49ER HOMEPAGE
Forty-Niner Publications, Department of Journalism, California State University, Long Beach ©1999 All rights reserved.