Columbine - home of 20-20 hindsight and the Lawyers' Career Protection Act.
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Stunning new Columbine charges
On the eve of the massacre's anniversary, a flurry of lawsuits by victims' families allege that law enforcement killed a student -- and failed to save many more.
By Dave Cullen
April 20, 2000
LITTLETON, Colo. -- On the eve of the Columbine massacre anniversary, stunning new allegations about the killings emerged from long-expected lawsuits filed by victims' families late Wednesday. They include charges that a law enforcement officer, not Dylan Klebold or Eric Harris, killed student Daniel Rohrbough, and that officers knew early on that Klebold and Harris were dead, and thus could have saved teacher Dave Sanders, who bled to death four hours after he was shot.
Attorneys for Rohrbough's family said they based the suit on eyewitness reports by a teacher and law officer, the position of the body and autopsy results showing the trajectory of the fatal bullet.
The suit by Sanders' family alleges that a sharpshooter had Klebold in his sights in the library, but his supervisors wouldn't allow him to act. It also contends the sharpshooter saw Klebold and Harris commit suicide, and thus officers were aware the pair was dead three hours before Sanders died, but failed to rescue him.
The Rohrboughs' lawsuit, joined by five other victims' families, also alleges that most of the deaths in the massacre could have been avoided. It says students could have easily fled the library early on, but a 911 operator had teacher Patti Nielson instruct them to stay put, and alleges they would have survived if they had not been told help was on the way.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Davis said there is no evidence to substantiate the families' claims. But the new details have led many to question the reason for the sheriff's department's delay in releasing its official report on the Columbine investigation.
A powerful voice has joined the growing chorus of exasperation over delays in the long-awaited investigation report. Principal Frank DeAngelis shared his frustration in an interview with Salon News, just days before the flurry of lawsuits began.
"We keep getting ready, I keep telling the community, 'OK, we're about two weeks away, we're two weeks away,' and keep preparing them," DeAngelis said. "There's only so many times you can get so wound up saying, 'Oh, I'm ready now, I'm ready,' and then all of a sudden, 'No!' 'I'm ready.' 'No.' I think there's a level of frustration."
Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson granted access to the draft report to families of two victims Monday, and extended the ruling to include all victims' families Tuesday. The families of Rohrbough and Kelly Fleming had sued the county for the information last week, in order to assess wrongful-death or negligence cases against the sheriff's department before the statute of limitations runs out Thursday. By the end of the day Wednesday, 15 families had filed lawsuits against the department, and as many as 20 are expected by the end of the anniversary deadline.
In his interview before the lawsuit filings, DeAngelis said his frustration over the repeated delays was shared by faculty, students and members of the community.
"I feel very badly for the families of the murdered," DeAngelis said. "Because they have been waiting over the past year for that to come out. All of a sudden, the parents were ready to look at the police report before Christmas, and then [the sheriff's department] was saying in January, and then it was going to be March, and then April, now it's May, it may be the summer.
And you kind of build yourself up -- they know it's not going to be pleasant, but you kind of prepare yourself for it, and then it's kind of a letdown.
"It's the same thing with me. That police report will always be associated with the 13 that were murdered. And that's what's awful, but at the same time, it's going to allow us to see exactly what happened. From that standpoint, I'm looking forward to the police report."
DeAngelis has a personal stake in the report's release. In the days and weeks after the killings, Columbine High itself was forced to share some of the blame, as some speculated that Klebold and Harris had been bullied and tormented by school jocks. Others wondered how DeAngelis could have been unaware of the so-called Trench Coat Mafia, which in those early days was said to have been the clique that hatched the killers.
The principal was briefed on key findings of the investigation throughout the days and months following the massacre, and has spent the past year waiting for many of the notorious rumors to be dispelled. "I said from day one, I truly believe, that when the truth comes out, I'll be exonerated from all the accusations, and Columbine High School will be exonerated," he said. "People have said, 'Aren't you fearful of this police report?' And I said, 'No, I want the truth, I want to know what the investigation states.'"
So many myths gained public currency last spring that most of the public misunderstood key aspects of the case, which dominated national news for months. Yet through it all, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department remained officially tight-lipped, taking no significant steps to correct the rumors and responding only to limited questions.
Some reporters were able to crack the wall of silence, however, to reveal that the killers were not members of the Trench Coat Mafia, and had not singled out jocks, African-Americans or Christians in their killing spree.
Still, the school may not get the exoneration it hopes for. Division Chief John Kiekbusch, the ranking officer overseeing the case, said in September that the report would offer facts without conclusions and has consistently repeated this mantra, leading many to conclude that the report will avoid many of the tragedy's most burning questions, such as the killers' motives and whether the persistent charges of an abusive jock culture within the school are true.
DeAngelis is clearly hoping for much more. "I think what we're going to find out -- without me knowing what's in that police report, other than what I've read in the newspaper -- I think you're going to find out that there were a lot of myths out there," he said. "And I think those myths are going to be dispelled just by what they found out in the police report.
They're going to find out that these two murderers did not target a person. They just hated everyone, and they were out to kill as many people as possible.
"And I think you're going to find out that this whole Trench Coat Mafia, this so-called organized gang, was a loose term used for a group of kids who had graduated a year before. The athletic thing -- [critics of the school] want to talk about two or three incidents that occurred, and they keep referring to those, and because of those two or three, there's a jock problem. So I think what the police report will show is that, boy, there were a lot of rumors out there, and people just wanted to believe [them]."
DeAngelis believes many of the rumors were accepted because of a natural instinct to try to find reassuring answers. "Because then if [people] can believe that, they'll say we know why [Harris and Klebold] murdered at Columbine High School," he said. "And, boy, if we can pinpoint that, then it's not going to happen again. If they can say, well, get rid of all athletics, or the jocks need to go, or we need to get rid of this and that, then therefore there's not going to be a murder at our school."
The department met secretly with several stakeholders in the investigation last summer, to privately squelch many of the rumors. Kiekbusch and FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier briefed the entire Columbine faculty and staff on the investigation Aug. 12, in a secret presentation just four days before students symbolically "took back the school."
Those who attended said the most poignant moment came when officials projected a slide from Harris' texts that read: "Don't blame the school. Don't ****ing put cops all over the place. Just because we went on a killing spree doesn't mean everybody else will. The admin. is doing a fine job as it is. I don't know who will be left after we kill, but dammit, don't change any policy just because of us. It would be stupid. If there's any way in this ****ed up universe we can come back as ghosts, we'll haunt the life of any one who blames anyone besides me and V [for vodka, Klebold's nickname]."
At the time, both investigators and school officials said that many of the faculty and staff members were eagerly awaiting the report's release, expecting at least partial vindication for the school. Eight months later, they're still waiting.
Since last summer, investigators have promised to release all their major findings at one time, in the form of a comprehensive final report, initially slated for fall. But it hasn't happened quite that way. Last September, high-ranking individuals within the investigation leaked key findings to Salon News. That was followed by departmentally authorized disclosures to Time magazine and the Rocky Mountain News in December and the Denver Post in March.
In the wake of those stories, it remained a mystery whether the report would contain any major surprises. One area where many questions remain is the behavior of local SWAT teams on the day of the massacre.
The SWAT teams came under blistering attack from some families and media commentators for taking several hours to reach the library. Sanders bled to death waiting for help to arrive, despite a message in the window warning of his predicament.
Several of the families cited SWAT response in their intent-to-sue notices last October. With few details available, the public discussion of that issue petered out inconclusively, with all indications that it will be hotly resumed once the facts are known. The department has consistently said its report would exonerate the SWAT teams.
Sheriff's spokesman Davis had said,
"Everything in that report has been pretty much reported." However, doubts persisted, because the department has repeatedly avoided releasing significant information until it was leaked or its hand was forced.
It did not even disclose the existence of Harris and Klebold's infamous home videos, for instance, until a few days before lead investigator Kate Battan was forced to read a short excerpt at the sentencing hearing for gun seller Mark Manes.
The week leading up to Thursday's choreographed anniversary memorials was billed as a solemn occasion, and one of the last predictable media events in the ongoing Columbine saga. But the lawsuit-filing deadline and the unexpected judicial decision to let the families see the draft report have shifted the focus back onto the crime and the legal fallout.
Walter Gerash, the lawyer who on Wednesday filed charges on behalf of the family of Sean Graves, who was severely injured, predicted the lawsuits would drag on for five to 10 years. He described a "very painful" future of finger-pointing, recriminations and nasty depositions.
Thursday's filing deadline applies only to suits against the sheriff's department, with another year to level charges against all other parties. Gerash predicted numerous suits would be added naming gun manufacturers, the school district and possibly the killers' families.
Both county and federal suits were filed Wednesday. The county suits cap awards at $150,000 per family, but federal claims are unlimited. Gerash predicted the various defense teams would eventually spend about $500,000 preparing their cases.
Gerash had championed a plan to avoid all lawsuits by setting up a $50 million relief government fund, but was turned down by Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, state Attorney General Ken Salazar and, finally, the White House on April 7.
A key element of the families' immediate strategy is to force early discovery in the sheriff's cases, Gerash said. That will allow them to flush out information relevant to potential filings against the other parties. He also predicted Jackson would eventually consolidate several of the county lawsuits, but the maneuvers would be much more complex than a standard class-action case.
The first lawsuit against the sheriff came Tuesday, filed on behalf of the parents of Isaiah Shoels, also the first and only family to sue the killers' parents and gun manufacturers. Most of the initial suits charged the department with negligence before the massacre, but some also take on several deputies for their performance once the shooting began. The Shoels' suit says officers exchanged gunfire with Harris and Klebold, but then set up a perimeter to keep them from escaping, rather than chasing them into the school and trying to prevent the murders.
"The actions of the sheriff's department were the direct and proximate cause of the death of Isaiah Shoels," the suit reads.
Tuesday, Dale Todd, father of wounded student Evan Todd, described the perimeter as allowing the killers "full reign to murder."
Jackson's surprise ruling allows the families access to the draft report -- previously said to run 200-300 pages -- as well as hundreds of hours of unedited 911 tapes, helicopter videotapes of the attack, police radio transmissions and a Fire Department training tape. He temporarily denied access to 200 volumes of raw investigative reports and school surveillance videos, because he wouldn't have time to review them before the filing deadline.
The sheriff's department fought the access and, according to Gerash, threatened the families with countercharges of frivolous lawsuits if they filed.
With access to the information coming so late, many of the suits relied heavily on depositions from the family of Brooks Brown, a Columbine student who says he was warned by Harris to leave the school shortly before the massacre.
Most of the initial suits charge that the department failed to properly investigate a series of complaints by Randy and Judy Brown, including Harris' death threats against their son and his now infamous Web site. The Browns first reported the site to the department March 18, 1998, 13 months before the massacre.
Gerash has coordinated with the other lawyers, and described many of the suits as motivated by "the year and a month that [the sheriff's department] didn't do anything. They had deliberate indifference," he said.
The suits could lead to poetic justice for the Browns, who have become perhaps the most bitter adversaries of the department in the past year. Sources close to the family report that they were, and remain, close friends with the Klebolds and have been distraught that his murders and suicide were not prevented.
But their initial dismay was nothing compared with their anger over the attacks their son Brooks suffered after Sheriff John Stone publicly accused him of involvement in the massacre.
For months Stone continued to insist that others were involved, despite protests from detectives performing the investigation. Eventually, he reversed himself, and now says he believes Harris and Klebold acted alone.
The Browns are organizing a recall election of Stone and plan to begin circulating petitions this summer.
One of the biggest mysteries in this flurry of lawsuits had been whether the Klebolds would join the litigation. They filed a notice of intent to sue last October in advance of the deadline, but their attorney, Lisa Simon, announced Wednesday that they would not proceed against the sheriff.
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited April 20, 2000).]
http://www.newcity.com/newcity/
Stunning new Columbine charges
On the eve of the massacre's anniversary, a flurry of lawsuits by victims' families allege that law enforcement killed a student -- and failed to save many more.
By Dave Cullen
April 20, 2000
LITTLETON, Colo. -- On the eve of the Columbine massacre anniversary, stunning new allegations about the killings emerged from long-expected lawsuits filed by victims' families late Wednesday. They include charges that a law enforcement officer, not Dylan Klebold or Eric Harris, killed student Daniel Rohrbough, and that officers knew early on that Klebold and Harris were dead, and thus could have saved teacher Dave Sanders, who bled to death four hours after he was shot.
Attorneys for Rohrbough's family said they based the suit on eyewitness reports by a teacher and law officer, the position of the body and autopsy results showing the trajectory of the fatal bullet.
The suit by Sanders' family alleges that a sharpshooter had Klebold in his sights in the library, but his supervisors wouldn't allow him to act. It also contends the sharpshooter saw Klebold and Harris commit suicide, and thus officers were aware the pair was dead three hours before Sanders died, but failed to rescue him.
The Rohrboughs' lawsuit, joined by five other victims' families, also alleges that most of the deaths in the massacre could have been avoided. It says students could have easily fled the library early on, but a 911 operator had teacher Patti Nielson instruct them to stay put, and alleges they would have survived if they had not been told help was on the way.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Davis said there is no evidence to substantiate the families' claims. But the new details have led many to question the reason for the sheriff's department's delay in releasing its official report on the Columbine investigation.
A powerful voice has joined the growing chorus of exasperation over delays in the long-awaited investigation report. Principal Frank DeAngelis shared his frustration in an interview with Salon News, just days before the flurry of lawsuits began.
"We keep getting ready, I keep telling the community, 'OK, we're about two weeks away, we're two weeks away,' and keep preparing them," DeAngelis said. "There's only so many times you can get so wound up saying, 'Oh, I'm ready now, I'm ready,' and then all of a sudden, 'No!' 'I'm ready.' 'No.' I think there's a level of frustration."
Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson granted access to the draft report to families of two victims Monday, and extended the ruling to include all victims' families Tuesday. The families of Rohrbough and Kelly Fleming had sued the county for the information last week, in order to assess wrongful-death or negligence cases against the sheriff's department before the statute of limitations runs out Thursday. By the end of the day Wednesday, 15 families had filed lawsuits against the department, and as many as 20 are expected by the end of the anniversary deadline.
In his interview before the lawsuit filings, DeAngelis said his frustration over the repeated delays was shared by faculty, students and members of the community.
"I feel very badly for the families of the murdered," DeAngelis said. "Because they have been waiting over the past year for that to come out. All of a sudden, the parents were ready to look at the police report before Christmas, and then [the sheriff's department] was saying in January, and then it was going to be March, and then April, now it's May, it may be the summer.
And you kind of build yourself up -- they know it's not going to be pleasant, but you kind of prepare yourself for it, and then it's kind of a letdown.
"It's the same thing with me. That police report will always be associated with the 13 that were murdered. And that's what's awful, but at the same time, it's going to allow us to see exactly what happened. From that standpoint, I'm looking forward to the police report."
DeAngelis has a personal stake in the report's release. In the days and weeks after the killings, Columbine High itself was forced to share some of the blame, as some speculated that Klebold and Harris had been bullied and tormented by school jocks. Others wondered how DeAngelis could have been unaware of the so-called Trench Coat Mafia, which in those early days was said to have been the clique that hatched the killers.
The principal was briefed on key findings of the investigation throughout the days and months following the massacre, and has spent the past year waiting for many of the notorious rumors to be dispelled. "I said from day one, I truly believe, that when the truth comes out, I'll be exonerated from all the accusations, and Columbine High School will be exonerated," he said. "People have said, 'Aren't you fearful of this police report?' And I said, 'No, I want the truth, I want to know what the investigation states.'"
So many myths gained public currency last spring that most of the public misunderstood key aspects of the case, which dominated national news for months. Yet through it all, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department remained officially tight-lipped, taking no significant steps to correct the rumors and responding only to limited questions.
Some reporters were able to crack the wall of silence, however, to reveal that the killers were not members of the Trench Coat Mafia, and had not singled out jocks, African-Americans or Christians in their killing spree.
Still, the school may not get the exoneration it hopes for. Division Chief John Kiekbusch, the ranking officer overseeing the case, said in September that the report would offer facts without conclusions and has consistently repeated this mantra, leading many to conclude that the report will avoid many of the tragedy's most burning questions, such as the killers' motives and whether the persistent charges of an abusive jock culture within the school are true.
DeAngelis is clearly hoping for much more. "I think what we're going to find out -- without me knowing what's in that police report, other than what I've read in the newspaper -- I think you're going to find out that there were a lot of myths out there," he said. "And I think those myths are going to be dispelled just by what they found out in the police report.
They're going to find out that these two murderers did not target a person. They just hated everyone, and they were out to kill as many people as possible.
"And I think you're going to find out that this whole Trench Coat Mafia, this so-called organized gang, was a loose term used for a group of kids who had graduated a year before. The athletic thing -- [critics of the school] want to talk about two or three incidents that occurred, and they keep referring to those, and because of those two or three, there's a jock problem. So I think what the police report will show is that, boy, there were a lot of rumors out there, and people just wanted to believe [them]."
DeAngelis believes many of the rumors were accepted because of a natural instinct to try to find reassuring answers. "Because then if [people] can believe that, they'll say we know why [Harris and Klebold] murdered at Columbine High School," he said. "And, boy, if we can pinpoint that, then it's not going to happen again. If they can say, well, get rid of all athletics, or the jocks need to go, or we need to get rid of this and that, then therefore there's not going to be a murder at our school."
The department met secretly with several stakeholders in the investigation last summer, to privately squelch many of the rumors. Kiekbusch and FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier briefed the entire Columbine faculty and staff on the investigation Aug. 12, in a secret presentation just four days before students symbolically "took back the school."
Those who attended said the most poignant moment came when officials projected a slide from Harris' texts that read: "Don't blame the school. Don't ****ing put cops all over the place. Just because we went on a killing spree doesn't mean everybody else will. The admin. is doing a fine job as it is. I don't know who will be left after we kill, but dammit, don't change any policy just because of us. It would be stupid. If there's any way in this ****ed up universe we can come back as ghosts, we'll haunt the life of any one who blames anyone besides me and V [for vodka, Klebold's nickname]."
At the time, both investigators and school officials said that many of the faculty and staff members were eagerly awaiting the report's release, expecting at least partial vindication for the school. Eight months later, they're still waiting.
Since last summer, investigators have promised to release all their major findings at one time, in the form of a comprehensive final report, initially slated for fall. But it hasn't happened quite that way. Last September, high-ranking individuals within the investigation leaked key findings to Salon News. That was followed by departmentally authorized disclosures to Time magazine and the Rocky Mountain News in December and the Denver Post in March.
In the wake of those stories, it remained a mystery whether the report would contain any major surprises. One area where many questions remain is the behavior of local SWAT teams on the day of the massacre.
The SWAT teams came under blistering attack from some families and media commentators for taking several hours to reach the library. Sanders bled to death waiting for help to arrive, despite a message in the window warning of his predicament.
Several of the families cited SWAT response in their intent-to-sue notices last October. With few details available, the public discussion of that issue petered out inconclusively, with all indications that it will be hotly resumed once the facts are known. The department has consistently said its report would exonerate the SWAT teams.
Sheriff's spokesman Davis had said,
"Everything in that report has been pretty much reported." However, doubts persisted, because the department has repeatedly avoided releasing significant information until it was leaked or its hand was forced.
It did not even disclose the existence of Harris and Klebold's infamous home videos, for instance, until a few days before lead investigator Kate Battan was forced to read a short excerpt at the sentencing hearing for gun seller Mark Manes.
The week leading up to Thursday's choreographed anniversary memorials was billed as a solemn occasion, and one of the last predictable media events in the ongoing Columbine saga. But the lawsuit-filing deadline and the unexpected judicial decision to let the families see the draft report have shifted the focus back onto the crime and the legal fallout.
Walter Gerash, the lawyer who on Wednesday filed charges on behalf of the family of Sean Graves, who was severely injured, predicted the lawsuits would drag on for five to 10 years. He described a "very painful" future of finger-pointing, recriminations and nasty depositions.
Thursday's filing deadline applies only to suits against the sheriff's department, with another year to level charges against all other parties. Gerash predicted numerous suits would be added naming gun manufacturers, the school district and possibly the killers' families.
Both county and federal suits were filed Wednesday. The county suits cap awards at $150,000 per family, but federal claims are unlimited. Gerash predicted the various defense teams would eventually spend about $500,000 preparing their cases.
Gerash had championed a plan to avoid all lawsuits by setting up a $50 million relief government fund, but was turned down by Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, state Attorney General Ken Salazar and, finally, the White House on April 7.
A key element of the families' immediate strategy is to force early discovery in the sheriff's cases, Gerash said. That will allow them to flush out information relevant to potential filings against the other parties. He also predicted Jackson would eventually consolidate several of the county lawsuits, but the maneuvers would be much more complex than a standard class-action case.
The first lawsuit against the sheriff came Tuesday, filed on behalf of the parents of Isaiah Shoels, also the first and only family to sue the killers' parents and gun manufacturers. Most of the initial suits charged the department with negligence before the massacre, but some also take on several deputies for their performance once the shooting began. The Shoels' suit says officers exchanged gunfire with Harris and Klebold, but then set up a perimeter to keep them from escaping, rather than chasing them into the school and trying to prevent the murders.
"The actions of the sheriff's department were the direct and proximate cause of the death of Isaiah Shoels," the suit reads.
Tuesday, Dale Todd, father of wounded student Evan Todd, described the perimeter as allowing the killers "full reign to murder."
Jackson's surprise ruling allows the families access to the draft report -- previously said to run 200-300 pages -- as well as hundreds of hours of unedited 911 tapes, helicopter videotapes of the attack, police radio transmissions and a Fire Department training tape. He temporarily denied access to 200 volumes of raw investigative reports and school surveillance videos, because he wouldn't have time to review them before the filing deadline.
The sheriff's department fought the access and, according to Gerash, threatened the families with countercharges of frivolous lawsuits if they filed.
With access to the information coming so late, many of the suits relied heavily on depositions from the family of Brooks Brown, a Columbine student who says he was warned by Harris to leave the school shortly before the massacre.
Most of the initial suits charge that the department failed to properly investigate a series of complaints by Randy and Judy Brown, including Harris' death threats against their son and his now infamous Web site. The Browns first reported the site to the department March 18, 1998, 13 months before the massacre.
Gerash has coordinated with the other lawyers, and described many of the suits as motivated by "the year and a month that [the sheriff's department] didn't do anything. They had deliberate indifference," he said.
The suits could lead to poetic justice for the Browns, who have become perhaps the most bitter adversaries of the department in the past year. Sources close to the family report that they were, and remain, close friends with the Klebolds and have been distraught that his murders and suicide were not prevented.
But their initial dismay was nothing compared with their anger over the attacks their son Brooks suffered after Sheriff John Stone publicly accused him of involvement in the massacre.
For months Stone continued to insist that others were involved, despite protests from detectives performing the investigation. Eventually, he reversed himself, and now says he believes Harris and Klebold acted alone.
The Browns are organizing a recall election of Stone and plan to begin circulating petitions this summer.
One of the biggest mysteries in this flurry of lawsuits had been whether the Klebolds would join the litigation. They filed a notice of intent to sue last October in advance of the deadline, but their attorney, Lisa Simon, announced Wednesday that they would not proceed against the sheriff.
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited April 20, 2000).]
