lawsuits

JonBenét Ramsey’s Brother Files $750 Million Defamation Lawsuit Against CBS Over The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey

The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey
Photo: CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images

Burke Ramsey, brother of murdered pageant fixture JonBenét Ramsey, is suing CBS for $750 million. Ramsey has filed a defamation lawsuit against the network over its airing of The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey, in which he is implicated in his sister’s unsolved killing. According to Reuters, Ramsey’s filing says he has been “exposed to public hatred, contempt and ridicule” in the wake of the program’s airing. The circumstances of JonBenét’s death became a national fixation in 1996, when the 6-year-old was found strangled in the basement of her family home. No one was ever charged over the death, but a panel of investigators on the CBS special, which aired earlier this year, for the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, suggested that it was then-9-year-old Burke who killed JonBenét. The group posited that he may have inadvertently done so, hitting her with a heavy object and leaving their parents to cover up the crime. Ramey’s lawsuit asks for $250 million in compensatory damages and $500 million in punitive damages against CBS, the special’s production company Critical Content LLC, and a number of the experts who appeared. The CBS lawsuit is the second one Ramsey has launched over the special, after filing suit against forensic pathologist Werner Spitz, who appeared on the show, in October.

JonBenét Ramsey’s Brother Sues CBS for $750 Mil