Can you not see the parallels with the McCann case?
Here is the full text of the family's attorney Allen Browning's statement:
"I represent Vernal DeOrr Kunz and Jessica Mitchell, the parents of missing DeOrr Kunz, and the child's paternal grandfather, Dennis DeOrr Kunz. Philip Klein was hired by Dennis Kunz, and was paid $20,000, to find the missing child DeOrr Kunz. He has been unsuccessful. As a private investigator hired by Mr. Kunz, he has an obligation to share his findings with his client. He also has an obligation to keep his findings confidential. The week of January 25, 2016, Mr. Klein made inflammatory public statements, to the effect that he has been doing an investigation and has found that there is no evidence to contradict the Lemhi County sheriff's conclusion that the parents of Dennis Kunz's grandchild should be named as suspects in this case. Mr. Klein's statements caused many to believe that Vernal DeOrr Kunz and Jessica Mitchell were responsible for their son's disappearance, and that Mr. Klein had proof, and this caused the general public to hate these people. I discussed this matter with Dennis and Vernal when these statements were made. We wanted a meeting with Mr. Klein to find out why he would make such statements without permission of his client and to tell him not to do such things in the future. Mr. Klein agreed to meet with Dennis and Vernal and other family members on Wednesday, January 27, 2016. When Mr. Klein was informed the family's attorney would be present, he said he would not meet with them.
"Not wishing to miss an opportunity to speak with Mr. Klein, Dennis agreed to speak with him without my being present.
"During the course of the meeting, Mr. Klein essentially recapped work that had been done by the FBI and the Lemhi County prosecutor, and even told Vernal Kunz that there was a deal on the table that all this could be over if he would just plead to one count of a charge in which he would admit to knowing where the body of his child was; he could get only six months of probation and the charge would be expunged from his record.
"After the meeting had been going on for some time, Vernal came out of the room to meet me, and he informed me that Mr. Klein had made that statement to him. Vernal told me that he would love for all of this to be over, but he wasn't going to plead to anything like that because he had no idea whether his son was dead or alive, he hoped he was alive, but certainly had no idea where he son was. I told him I needed to go in and meet with Mr. Klein, who was now not operating like the family's private investigator, but was acting like a prosecutor trying to trick my client.
"I went into the meeting and introduce myself to Mr. Klein, who was not at all happy to see me. I asked him if he had related to Vernal that he was being offered a plea deal with the FBI where he would plead to some offense, get six months' probation and get the offense expunged from his record, because I am not aware of any federal charge that would get a defendant six months probation and an expungement of the offense from the record. Mr. Klein refused to answer my question. I told Mr. Klein that he was not to be giving Vernal any legal advice, because I was the attorney and he was not. Mr. Klein said that under Texas law he was not even allowed to be in the same room with me while discussing details of this case. I informed Mr. Klein that he was in Idaho and there was no such law in Idaho. At that point, Mr. Klein gathered his papers in front of him and prepared to leave. I informed him, in the presence of Dennis Kunz at that time, that I was the spokesman for the Kunz family and Mr. Klein was not authorized to make any public statements on behalf of the family. Mr. Klein heard me loud and clear at that time.
"I am not aware that any efforts have been made by Mr. Klein since that meeting to find DeOrr Jr. However, Dennis did call Mr. Klein a couple of weeks ago and asked him if Klein had anyone in Idaho working on the case, and he said that he did, that he had "undercover" agents working on the case, people whose identities could not be disclosed. Dennis wanted to meet them and Mr. Klein said that was not possible. Dennis insisted if there was anyone working for Mr. Klein on the case that he meet with him. An hour later, Mr. Klein called him back and said he would allow the meeting, but only this once. He said that Dennis had to go to the local mall, enter at a particular time through a particular door, and take a particular route to Dillard's department store. He was to go to a particular spot in that store and stand facing the wall, and after a time someone would come up behind him and whisper the secret code number "999," and that would be Klein's undercover agent.
So Dennis did as Mr. Klein directed. Some guy showed up and whispered the secret code number "999" to him, and Dennis asked him to show him some documentation that he was a member of the Klein Investigations team. He didn't have anything, so Dennis didn't bother speaking with him further.
"Why any private investigator would act this way is beyond me.
"A couple of days ago, again without consulting Dennis, and in violation of my express statement to Mr. Klein in Dennis' presence that I was the authorized spokesman for the Kunz family and he was not, Mr. Klein took to the media and announced to the world that DeOrr jr. was dead, that Jessica Mitchell had confessed to him that she knew where the body was, that Vernal DeOrr Kunz was a liar that was hiding what he knew from everyone and that Dennis Kunz and the rest of the family was in denial.
"None of these statements are true.
"When I heard that Jessica had confessed to Philip Klein that she knew DeOrr Jr. was dead and that she knew where the body was I was shocked. I spoke with her and asked if this was true. She said no, she had been questioned numerous times by the sheriff and the FBI, not recently, and that after she had finished one of the interrogations they asked where she thought her son might be. She said she thought he was still up on the mountain somewhere and they just haven't been able to find him yet.
"As to polygraph test results, those are never to be shared with the general public for several reasons. Among those reasons is that the machine has to be read by someone and is subjective; it does not say "lie" or "truth." In many cases, the readings are "inconclusive." In Vernal's case, he voluntarily subjected himself to a polygraph three times, because they told him the first test was not administered properly, the second was inconclusive. He hasn't seen any results from the third test.
"Mr. Klein has said Vernal Kunz is a liar. He will get his opportunity to prove Mr. Kunz is a liar. However, Mr. Kunz did not lie to investigators. Mr. Kunz had no obligation to speak with detectives at all. If he had committed a crime concerning his son, he would not have voluntarily subjected himself to interrogations by detectives, without having an attorney present, many times.
"I would like the general public to know that Mr. Kunz had spoken with me last summer about the police wanting to question him about the disappearance of his son. I told him at that time he should make no statement at all, because the police and FBI were not interested in finding his son, they were going to be setting him up to convict him of a crime. He met with them anyway because he had not done anything wrong. As a result of several of those meetings, this innocent man has been named a "suspect" in the disappearance of his son. A reporter from a national magazine informed me that the "inconsistency" in one of Vernal's statements to the Lemhi County sheriff was that he changed the identity of who made breakfast the day of his son's disappearance.
"I hope this is a lesson to the general public: innocent people need to follow their attorney's advice.
"As a result of the recent outrageous statements by Mr. Klein, Jessica has been terminated from her employment. The public at large has posted statements hailing Mr. Klein as some kind of a public hero and blasting Vernal DeOrr Kunz and Jessica Mitchell as being the s..m of the earth. I have read these statements and they are heartbreaking.
"I am proud that I am being given the opportunity to set the record straight for Vernal DeOrr Kunz and Jessica Mitchell, and to let the public know that they will proceed with legal action against Mr. Klein for making defamatory statements about them.
"I am also proud to state that I will be filing a breach of contract suit against Mr. Klein on behalf of his former client, Dennis DeOrr Kunz. Mr. Klein was not hired to abuse his family. Mr. Klein was never given permission to make any statements about his investigation to the general public. Mr. Klein was paid $20,000 to find DeOrr Jr. because that's what Dennis wanted and that's what Vernal wanted. Mr. Klein's actions have been nothing short of destructive, and Dennis Kunz and his family want nothing further to do with Philip Klein.
"I met with Dennis Kunz, Vernal Kunz and Jessica Mitchell yesterday. Dennis signed a letter formally firing Mr. Klein, and listing all the trouble he has caused by making unauthorized statements.
"Social media has exploded as a result of the horrendous and untrue statements of Philip Klein. Hundreds of people have written comments in response to these statements. The general public is now convinced that Vernal DeOrr Kunz and Jessica Mitchell are criminals at best, child murderers at worst.
"I want the public to know that I advised my clients to fire Philip Klein. Some on social media have publicly come to Mr. Klein's defense, without any knowledge of the real facts (like the weeks that Vernal Kunz spent searching for his son in Lemhi County after his disappearance). Some have said Mr. Klein was fired because he was getting "too close to the truth." There is no truth to that at all.
"Philip Klein was fired for destroying people's lives.
"Dennis Kunz can understand the FBI making people's lives a living hell by accusing them of crimes; it's what they do. What no one reading this can tolerate is hiring someone to help your family find a missing loved one, and having that person turn on you and use false statements to make the world hate the ones you love."
http://www.ktvb.com/news/local/kunz-family-plans-to-sue-investigator/66876073
