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Report: GREAT WHITE Members Get So-Called Free Talk Letters, No One Else

December 12, 2003

GREAT WHITE singer Jack Russell, drummer Eric Powers, guitarist Dave Filice and tour manager Daniel Biechele accepted agreements from the state attorney general's office that allowed them to talk to prosecutors during the Rhode Island nightclub fire investigation without fear their testimony would be used against them, according to the Boston Globe.

Michael Healey, a spokesman for Attorney General Patrick Lynch, said no one else was offered the letters, which do not provide immunity from prosecution. Healey said no deals were made.

A source close to the investigation said the letters were offered to the band members and Biechele in the days following the fire. They were questioned from Feb. 26 to March 2 by prosecutors. The source said the band answered all questions asked.

''Free talk letters are given out all the time. It's a regular practice. It's not a special deal,'' said Edward C. Roy Jr., a federal public defender and former president of the Rhode Island Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Roy said the letters are given to encourage witnesses to tell prosecutors what they know without fear of self-incrimination. But, Roy said, ''it doesn't protect you from other sources giving information that implicates you.''

Ed McPherson, a lawyer for GREAT WHITE, said the band cooperated with investigators.

''Basically the band from the beginning has had the attitude irrespective of criminal or civil liability that they owed it to the victims and their families to come out and tell the full truth and tell as much as they could,'' he said.

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