BOULDER, Colo. — Just months before the 20th anniversary of the death of JonBenet Ramsey, a CBS special report pointed the finger of blame at her brother Burke Ramsey. He's now suing CBS Corporation for a hefty sum.
A lawsuit filed on Wednesday names CBS, along with Critical Content, LLC, Jim Clemente, Laura Richards, A. James Kolar, James R. Fitzgerald, Stanley B. Burke, Werner U. Spitz and Henry C. Lee.
Each party was involved in the making of "The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey" with CBS calling on Critical Content, LLC to produce the special. Others who were named were involved in the acting and investigation in the piece.
Ramsey's lawsuit alleges the entire piece was contracted in a way that CBS hadn't attempted before, and had been designed from the start to pin the murder on Burke Ramsey.
In the piece, which aired between two days on Sept. 18 and Sept. 19, the on-air investigators led up to and ultimately claimed Burke Ramsey committed the murder by bludgeoning his sister with a flashlight, then choking her to death.
The lawsuit claims over 18.6 million viewers watched the combined days of the special report, leading to $750 million in damages against Burke Ramsey.
Ramsey's case seeks $250 million in damages to his reputation and $500 million in punitive damages.
Filed in the State of Michigan, the lawsuit rounds out an earlier suit filed against Dr. Werner Spitz, who is also named in the Dec. 28 lawsuit.
The earlier lawsuit had been filed for $150 million, however it's not clear if that Michigan case has been rolled into this one.
The lawsuit focuses on both those pieces of evidence, as the CBS special honed in on each as a way to point to Burke Ramsey.
In the end, the CBS special ultimately broke away from police reports and police findings, leading Ramsey to file charges.
Prior to the 2016 report by CBS, the Ramsey case said only four other publications issued stories blaming Burke Ramsey or the Ramsey family for JonBenet's death.
The Ramsey family has taken each publication -- including the New York Post -- to court. The family has dismissed each case after accepting a private settlement.
