Judge releases child beauty queen's murder on bail

A judge ordered suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey child beauty queen murder case released on bail Sunday after his arrest in a domestic disturbance.

Photo: Judge releases child beauty queen's murder on bail

Fulton County Magistrate Judge Jay Roth set a $3,000 (2,200 EUR) signature bond for John Mark Karr, 42, who was released Sunday afternoon. In a brief morning hearing, Karr stood impassively as the judge went through the proceedings.

Karr faces misdemeanor charges of battery and obstruction related to an argument with his girlfriend and father on Friday at his father's house.

Sandy Springs Police Lt. Steve Rose said Wexford Karr, 86, was issued a simple battery citation, since the father and son appeared to have exchanged blows. The older Karr was not taken into custody because of his age and because he was not considered a flight risk, Rose said Sunday.

John Mark Karr was arrested last summer in Thailand after making bizarre, detailed confessions to being with JonBenet when the 6-year-old beauty contestant was killed in her home in Boulder, Colorado, in December 1996.

It was a sudden turn in the highly-publicized decade-old case, but Karr, a sometime teacher obsessed with the little girl's slaying, was freed because Boulder police could not corroborate his claims or even find any solid indication he had been in town when JonBenet was killed.