Dismissal Sought In GREAT WHITE Nightclub Fire Case
November 15, 2005The Associated Press has issued the following report:
Lawyers for the owners of a nightclub where 100 people died in a 2003 fire want criminal charges against their clients tossed out because evidence was allegedly withheld from a grand jury.
Attorneys for Jeffrey and Michael Derderian argued in court papers filed Monday (Nov. 14) that jurors should have been told about a fax sent to prosecutors by a salesman who sold the insulating foam involved in the deadly fire.
Barry Warner's eight-page fax said his company, Johnston-based American Foam Corp., had a policy of not warning customers about the potential hazards — including flammability — of the foam it was selling.
The fax was sent anonymously; Warner did not acknowledge to prosecutors that he was the author until this month. The fax was then turned over to the defense.
American Foam's general manager said after the fax was disclosed last week that Warner's claims were not true.
The blaze at The Station nightclub in West Warwick spread quickly when a rock band's pyrotechnics ignited flammable soundproofing foam inside the club.
A grand jury in December 2003 indicted the Derderians and Daniel Biechele, the former tour manager for GREAT WHITE, the rock band on stage at the time of the fire, on 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
A spokesman for the attorney general's office, Michael Healey, said prosecutors were still reviewing the defense motion.
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