Therapist backs sex ring claim

Bienkowski: Client gave Boulder police names of people who are witnesses in JonBenét's death

By Christopher Anderson

Camera Staff Writer

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.  A private therapist said Friday she stands behind her client who claims to have crucial information that could help investigators in the death of JonBenét Ramsey.

Mary Bienkowski, a licensed marriage, family and child counselor, said her client gave Boulder police specific names of individuals who are witnesses in the killing of JonBenét as well as ongoing sexual and physical abuse of other children.

"If they do their job and investigate what needs to be investigated, the rest of the pieces will fall into place, and nobody is going to like what they find out," she said. "This person wouldn't be coming forward and risking everything if it were not because she wanted the abuse to stop and wanted to protect other children."

Bienkowski said she has treated her client for the past 10 years for trauma endured as a repeated victim of sexual assault. Because her client had information that a widespread sex ring could have been behind the Dec. 26, 1996, strangulation and beating death of 6-year-old JonBenét, she encouraged the woman to take the information to authorities.

JonBenét was found in the basement of her family's Boulder home. Her parents, John and Patsy, are the focus of a police investigation, although the couple have denied involvement in their daughter's death.

After 13 months of investigating the case, a Boulder grand jury disbanded in October without charges being filed.

During an interview Friday with the Daily Camera at a downtown San Luis Obispo coffee shop, Bienkowski blasted the Boulder Police Department for not actively investigating the list of people she said her client believes may have knowledge of who killed JonBenét.

She would not divulge the names of those thought to be involved, saying that information should first be given to law enforcement officials.

The woman said she knew the Ramseys through the Fleet White family. She said the godfather to her mother is Fleet White Sr. Fleet White Jr. of Boulder and John Ramsey were close friends until the death of JonBenét. Police cleared Fleet White Jr. as a suspect in April 1997.

The Whites have not returned phone calls from the Daily Camera. John Ramsey's attorney has declined to comment on the new information.

Boulder police say talking to the therapist is high on their list and that a detective tried to contact her by telephone. The therapist said one of the reasons she is reluctant to cooperate is because she said the Boulder police broke her trust. When police contacted her Friday, she told them she would not release any information until she had a written release from the client.

Although police knew her client expressed fear of retaliation, Bienkowski said Boulder police risked her client's safety when officers told local police here about her interview in the Ramsey case after a family member reported her missing.

"They may have already compromised the evidence by leaking where she was, who she is," Bienkowski said.

Another reason she gave for not returning phone calls to detectives is that police have already indicated they don't believe her client.

"Why would I want to turn this information over to people who have said they don't believe it," she said. "That's not an open mind; that's not objective."

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner



Beckner

"It's a pretty big conspiracy she is talking about, involving a lot of people," he said.

If the current investigation turns up evidence of a sex ring, Beckner said, "I will be absolutely, totally amazed."

"It would go against all the evidence that we have, but it doesn't matter," he said. "If this is true, I am interested in it. ... We are treating this as though it's real."

Bienkowski also criticized police for focusing on the credibility of her client, saying they should spend more time investigating the list of people her client has turned over.

"I am not on trial here, and neither is she," Bienkowski said. "The issue is the information. ... She doesn't want the attention. Her focus is to stop the abuse."

Bienkowski has been licensed for eight years. She now runs her own private practice.

Bienkowski said she does not hypnotize her clients and offer suggestions as is the case in some types of repressed memory therapy.

"I don't believe in that kind of work," she said. "The work that I do with my clients is basic sound psychotherapy."

Bienkowski said she never believes everything her clients tell her, but she said she believes a "substantial amount" of what her client says about the Ramsey case and what she knows about other abuse of children.

She declined to say if her client has been diagnosed with a mental illness. "I don't think I can go there right now," she said.

She also said she doesn't believe in labels.

"Putting labels on it to say the person is just this or just that makes no sense," she said.

She said the focus should be on justice.

"I don't feel there is truly justice anymore, not for JonBenét and people like her," Bienkowski said.

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