Digital Bulletin

WARWICK -- In the courtroom today, family members of the Station fire victims spoke of pain, loss and grief.

One after another, they told about the impact of the disastrous nightclub blaze on their lives. They criticized Superior Court Judge Francis Darigan Jr.'s acceptance of the plea agreement. They tried to voice their opinions of the Derderian brothers and decisions they made leading up to the Febuary 2003 fire.

Many felt wronged by the plea agreement and said so, either indirectly or directly as the court proceedings wore on. The first person to speak -- Robert Johnson Sr., who lost his son in the fire – said he is “a broken man, lost in a world without my precious son, Derek.”

He did not offer a reason for a request he said he was making “with all due respect to the court.”

“I respectfully ask that my son’s name, Derek Brian Johnson, be removed from the criminal complaint,” he said. “Now, they only got 99.”

The fourth person who spoke was the first to voice displeasure with the plea agreement.

“I’ve heard your comments,” Darigan said to Claire Bruyere, the mother of Bonnie Hamelin. In response, she rolled her eyes.

Darigan told her one comment was “not helpful or productive,” and then he allowed her to continue.

“She was let down by the system,” she said of her daughter.

Bruyere said she can no longer tell people she’s proud to be part of a system that provides justice to all.

“I feel betrayed, lost and mostly heartbroken,” she said. “I was born an American citizen. Now, I wish I could give my citizenship back.”

Throughout the day, Darigan continued to stop family members when they began to discuss displeasure with the plea agreement or to criticize the Derderians.

Jay McLaughlin, related to Sandy and Michael Hoogasian, told the judge he felt a sense of "pain caused by disrespect, apathy, betrayal, all of which have victimized us over and over again."

The judge abruptly cut off McLaughlin when his remarks turned negative and ordered a brief recess before allowing McLaughlin to return and continue.

While he said he understood their frustration, Darigan said the hearing wasn't an opportunity for a diatribe against the proceeding.

At the outset, Darigan told the packed Kent County courtroom and an overflow courtroom viewing the hearing by video that the court is “well aware of the tremendous dissatisfaction, anger, bitterness and some disgust” people feel with the way the matter has been handled.

He spoke of the belief that some held that what happened in court today could cause the court to change course.

“That is not the case,” he said. “The pleas outlined will be imposed.”

With that, one man sitting in the front row of the overflow courtroom stood up and quietly walked past rows of other family members and left the proceedings.

He didn’t say a word. But others did in the room filled with about 90 people watching the proceedings on video screen.

As Darigan proceeded to say that he understood how those in the audience felt about the case, there were cries of “No, you don’t!” from the overflow courtroom, where for the first two hours this morning people reacted with cheers or boos to what was said in the courtroom next door.

Family members who did speak worked in as much of their feelings as they could about the plea and sentencing agreement that short-circuited the process they hoped would lead to a trial.

“I’d like to thank you, Judge Darigan, for deciding for me we could not go through a trial,” said Bonnie Hoisington, the mother of fire victim Abbie Hoisington.

In the overflow room packed with 80 to 90 people, Hoisington’s comments drew cheers.

“We followed the rules and were betrayed by all the rules that were supposed to protect all of us,” Hoisington continued.

Through it all, Judge Darigan sat firmly on his bench. Methodically and deliberately, he followed the agenda for the proceeding, moving it along even faster than predicted.

As the hearing went on, he appeared to give family members a little more leeway in their statements. But in the end, the judge had the final word.

"The court must sentence the defendants for the crimes to which they have pled," he said in his sentencing explanation, "not on the basis of the terrible outcome."