JonBenet Ramsey's brother Burke has sued CBS for $750 million over a television series that re-examined the 1996 death of the 6-year-old beauty pageant queen.
Burke Ramsey, 29, was nine when his sister was murdered inside the family's home in Boulder, Colorado, reported CNN, and he charged in the civil lawsuit that the series "The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey" falsely accused him in the murder.
Atlanta-based attorney Lin Wood filed the lawsuit on Ramsey's behalf in Wayne County circuit court in Michigan on Wednesday, reported the Denver Post.
Other defendants named in the lawsuit, according to the Post, included Critical Content LLC, a California programming studio; former FBI profilers Jim Clemente, James Fitzgerald and Stanley Burke; forensic expert Laura Richards; former Boulder district attorney's investigator A. James Kolar; forensic scientist Dr. Werner Spitz, and celebrity pathologist Henry Lee.
The complaint mentioned lawsuits filed against tabloid publishers in the late 1990s that claimed Burke Ramsey was a suspect in the murder and which were settled out of court, said CNN.
"Since the time of the above accusations against Burke in 1998 and 1999, no member of the tabloid media or the mainstream media has ever again accused Burke of being involved in — or suspected of — JonBenét's murder. That is, until CBS aired the documentary."
Burke Ramsey, who now lives in Charlevoix, Michigan, is demanding $250 million in compensatory damages and $500 million in punitive damages, noted the Post.
"CBS perpetrated a fraud upon the public — instead of being a documentary based on a new investigation by a so-called team of experts, 'The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey' was a fictional crime show based primarily on a preconceived storyline scripted in a self-published and commercially unsuccessful book, 'Foreign Faction' written by defendant James Kolar and published in 2012," according to the lawsuit, per People magazine.
The lawsuit charged that Burke Ramsey suffered significant damage and harm, including financial damages, mental anguish, and damage to his reputation because of the television series, according to People.
Ramsey filed a $150 million lawsuit in Michigan against Spitz in October over comments he made during a Sept. 19 Detroit radio program, which were also used in the CBS miniseries, noted the Post.
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