• facebook
  • twitter
  • rss

GREAT WHITE Nightclub Fire: Attorney General Seeks Release Of Grand Jury Testimony

December 14, 2006

The Associated Press has issued the following report:

Public confidence in the criminal justice system, shaken after three men charged in a deadly nightclub fire reached plea deals rather than stand trial, could be improved by the full disclosure of secret grand jury testimony in the case, lawyers said Wednesday in arguing for the release of the materials.

The attorney general's office is seeking to make the testimony public to satisfy intense interest in the circumstances and scope of the investigation into the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at The Station nightclub, which killed 100 people.

Superior Court Presiding Justice Joseph Rodgers Jr. said he expected to decide within 10 days.

The state convened a grand jury days after the fire, which began when pyrotechnics from the rock band GREAT WHITE ignited flammable soundproofing foam in the West Warwick club.

The grand jury met for 10 months before indicting club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian and former GREAT WHITE tour manager Daniel Biechele. All three entered plea deals this year, resolving the charges and erasing the prospect of a criminal trial, which many saw as an opportunity for unfettered access to information about how the disaster occurred.

Read the rest of the article at this location.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).