Karr has long sex assault record, official says
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/15293715.htm
By Kirk Mitchell
MEDIANEWS
John Mark Karr's arrest in Bangkok, Thailand, after vanishing several years ago was a mixed blessing for his 85-year-old father.
"I thought someone had killed him," Wexford Karr said Wednesday afternoon while sobbing during a telephone interview from his home in Atlanta. "This is such a surprise that he is alive."
But learning his son was alive also came with news that the 41-year-old was arrested in the Dec. 26, 1996, murder of JonBenét Ramsey, he said.
John Karr had disappeared after his release from jail in 2001.
John Karr, who relatives said had long spoke of a fascination with the Ramsey case, told his father that he was being held for investigation of murdering the 6-year-old girl.
In truth, John Karr was being held in 2001 while awaiting trial for five counts of child pornography, said Sgt. Rob Giordano, spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department. When he finally was released on bond, he disappeared and was convicted in absentia.
Wexford Karr had never heard that his son had been arrested on any previous criminal charges. But a Colorado official said John Karr has an extensive criminal record for sexual assaults across the South, including Tennessee.
Wexford Karr father said his son did not go to college as a youth because he did not have enough money to send him. John Karr and his ex-wife, Lara, had three sons in three years, his father said, the oldest now about 14.
It was not until after his children were born that John Karr went to college, majoring in education and graduating with honors, Wexford Karr said.
"He is just an exemplary son," he said.
His son's troubles can be traced back to a decision while he was still in college to write a school paper about the JonBenét Ramsey murder case several years ago, Wexford Karr said.
John Karr's college professor was so impressed with the paper that he encouraged him to write a book about JonBenét's case, his father said. "He researched everything he could about her," Wexford Karr said.
John Karr spoke with JonBenét's grandparents, but her parents refused to speak with him, Wexford Karr said. John Ramsey told a Denver television station Wednesday that he does not believe the family knew Karr.
When Wexford Karr asked his son what he uncovered for his book, John was quiet. "He wouldn't talk about it," he said.
The research continued when John Karr moved his family to Petaluma. He told his father that he took a job at a Catholic girls' school in San Francisco. While teaching at the school, John joined the Catholic church, his father said.
Karr applied with Sonoma County schools to be a substitute teacher in its K-12 system and received a state teaching permit in January 2001.
In April 2001, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department alerted school officials that John Karr had been arrested on a "non-school-related incident," Superintendent Carl Wong said.
"Based on the serious nature of that, we issued a notice of personnel action in June 2001, and he was never again employed in any capacity in the K-12 public school system," he said.
Asked whether students, teachers or parents ever had complaints about Karr, Wong said, "None whatsoever."
After John Karr's arrest, Lara Karr filed for divorce. "She said the name Karr has destroyed her life," Wexford Karr said.
The divorce prohibited John Karr from seeing his sons.