Digital Extra: The Station Fire

12:46 PM EST on Monday, March 14, 2005

By TRACY BRETON
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. announced today that prosecutors and lawyers for the three men charged with the deaths of 100 people in The Station nightclub fire have reached an agreement that should pave the way for further testing of polyurethane foam, the kind that lined the walls and ceiling of the club.

After meeting in chambers with the lawyers for an hour, Darigan took the bench and said that lawyers for the defendants in the manslaughter case have "stipulated'' that foam that prosecutors bought from American Foam in Johnston after the fire "is substantially similar'' to the six pieces of undamaged foam seized from the basement of the nightclub after the fire.

This will presumably make more foam available for testing, not just for prosecutors and lawyers for the three criminal defendants -- Michael A. Derderian, Jeffrey A. Derderian and Daniel M. Biechele -- but also by lawyers representing victims of the fire and their survivors in a raft of civil suits filed in U.S. District Court.

Lawyers for the victims and their families have been trying, unsuccessfully, for months to get access to some of the foam seized from the charred ruins of the West Warwick nightclub, but have been rebuffed by prosecutors.

But as a result of today's announcement by Darigan regarding the agreement reached over the "exemplar'' foam bought by the state from American Foam -- the same company that sold the Derderians the soundproofing foam for their nightclub -- the civil lawyers expressed optimism that they will soon be given some of the foam seized from the club so their own experts can test it.

Darigan said there appeared to be a new level of cooperation between the civil lawyers and the state attorney general's office, which to date has refused to turn over to the victims the results of some of its test results on foam seized from the basement of the nightclub.

In court today, the judge said the office of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch will now share all of its test results with the civil lawyers.

He also said that lawyers representing the victims and those parties being sued by them in federal court have agreed to give prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers a chance to view more than 700 pieces of evidence stored in a warehouse in Cranston. This evidence was gathered by the civil lawyers' experts from the ruins of the fire after criminal investigators were given access to the site.

Darigan said that in return for access to the warehouse, prosecutors have agreed to turn over to the civil lawyers photographs they have of The Station both before and after the fire there on Feb. 20, 2003.

Darigan scheduled the next pretrial conference in the criminal case for 9 a.m. March 23. He said there may be weekly meetings after that.

The Derderian brothers, who owned The Station, and Biechele, the former tour manager for the rock band Great White, each face 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter. All have pleaded not-guilty.

The defendants were indicted under two theories of manslaughter: misdemeanor manslaughter and criminal negligence.

In the case of the Derderians, the alleged underlying misdemeanor is a violation of a state fire-code regulation that required them to use flame-resistant acoustical material in their nightclub. In the case of Biechele, the alleged underlying misdemeanor is setting off pyrotechnics inside The Station without the required permit. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

Today in court, the Derderians filed a motion seeking more specific answers from prosecutors regarding the basis for the involuntary-manslaughter charges. Biechele's lawyer filed a similar motion last Friday, claiming that information provided thus far by the state includes "vague, ambiguous and confusing'' assertions that ``create the very real possibility of unfair surprise at trial.''

Among the information sought by the Derderians is "the proximate cause or proximate causes of death including, but not limited to, the time, date, place, manner and means of death'' for everyone killed as a result of the fire, "and whether the state is alleging that any act or failure to act by this defendant resulted in any proximate cause of death.''

In addition to taking 100 lives, the fire injured more than 200 people. There are currently eight civil suits pending in U.S. District Court in Providence seeking monetary damages for the victims and their survivors.

The criminal trial of the Derderians and Biechele won't begin until sometime in 2006, Dargian said.

A lawyer representing many of the victims said he predicted that it would be at least two years before the civil suits are tried.