Digital Extra: The Station Fire

10:14 AM EDT on Friday, August 20, 2004

The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE -- Lawyers added 26 more defendants to a federal lawsuit on behalf of eight Connecticut residents who were killed or injured in The Station nightclub fire last year.

One of the new defendants is the Channel 12 television cameraman who was filming a story on nightclub safety when the February 2003 blaze erupted.

His footage showed the blaze beginning when pyrotechnics were shot off during a concert by Great White, and the ensuing chaos at the West Warwick club. One hundred people died, and more than 200 were injured.

Other defendants added to the litigation include insurance firms and a company that inspected the nightclub before the fire.

The amended lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Providence, pushed the number of defendants to 53.

"Essentially we want to make sure that we have named every party that was involved in this fire to make sure that everybody liable is involved in this lawsuit," Robert I. Reardon Jr., one of the four lawyers working on the case, told The Day of New London, Conn.

The original lawsuit, filed in June 2003 in U.S. District Court in Hartford, Conn., named 27 defendants, including the brothers who owned the nightclub, Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, West Warwick town officials and Anheuser-Busch Inc., which sold beer at the concert.

The Derderian brothers and Daniel Biechele, Great White's tour manager, were indicted by a Rhode Island grand jury in December on 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter - two counts for each death. Biechele is accused of lighting the pyrotechnics.

The amended lawsuit mirrors a complaint filed July 22 in Rhode Island state court by eight attorneys on behalf of 80 people killed and another 146 injured in the blaze. The 70-count Rhode Island lawsuit names 46 defendants and spans 130 pages.

The 141-page, 70-count Connecticut lawsuit sues the same defendants as its Rhode Island counterpart and adds seven more names that lawyers allege promoted the concert across state lines and lured people from Connecticut to see Great White.

They include the Norwich, Conn., branch of Strawberries, a chain of East Coast music stores, which allegedly sold two tickets to the concert to Sarah Jane Telgarsky of Plainfield, Conn., who was killed in the fire.

The lawsuit alleges that the store should have known that The Station did not have adequate fire protection. Strawberries made about $5 from the sale of the two $20 tickets, lawyers have said.

Other Connecticut defendants include New London radio station WQGN, which gave away tickets to the concert. Ledyard residents Glenn and Lisa Johnson and New London resident Melanie Holiday went to The Station after winning some of those tickets. All three survived the fire but suffered burns, smoke inhalation and other injuries.

The additional defendants include cameraman Brian Butler, his employer, Channel 12 in Providence, and his network, CBS Broadcasting.

Butler's footage gave both investigators and television viewers haunting images of the start of the inferno. Both the Connecticut and Rhode Island lawsuits allege that Butler blocked an exit while he filmed, potentially increasing the death toll.

"Not true," said Chip Babcock, a lawyer defending Butler, Channel 12 and CBS. "He didn't, and there is a film record of it that pretty clearly demonstrates that. ... I still believe that Brian Butler saved lives that night."

Babcock added, "We understand what is happening here. The plaintiffs' lawyers are trying to create as deep of a pool as they can to compensate these people. But having deep pockets is not what it is all about. You've got to find who is responsible."

The Connecticut lawsuit seeks compensatory damages of $100 million, punitive damages, lawyers fees and court costs.