Oregon Supreme Court Reverses Child Porn Conviction of JonBenét Ramsey Photographer
SALEM, Ore. (March 26, 2026) — In a landmark privacy ruling, the Oregon Supreme Court today overturned the conviction of Randall DeWitt Simons, the former photographer who took some of the last known images of murdered child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey, finding that police violated his state constitutional rights by secretly monitoring his internet activity for more than a year over a public restaurant Wi-Fi network. Simons, now 73, was convicted in 2019 of 15 counts of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse after authorities used logs from an Oakridge, Oregon A&W restaurant’s free Wi-Fi to track 255,723 of his webpage visits. The data allegedly showed visits to sites containing child pornography. No warrant was obtained for the surveillance. Writing for the majority in State v. DeWitt Simons , 375 Or 70 (2026), Justice James held that Article I, section 9 of the Oregon Constitution protects a person’s privacy interest in their internet browsing activity, even when using a p...
