Digital Extra: The Station Fire

The attorneys are told that the filing of amended complaints -- adding or subtracting defendants, for example -- must be done now.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, October 27, 2004

BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Sixty-five lawyers representing victims of The Station nightclub fire and parties they are suing in connection with the deadly blaze attended a closed-door status conference in U.S. District Court yesterday.

They were told by the judge presiding over the civil suits that before pretrial discovery begins for the civil cases -- including testing of materials -- the court will hear motions to dismiss that have been filed by some of the defendants who assert that they were wrongly sued, according to Providence lawyer Gerald DeMaria, a lawyer representing two foam manufacturers named as defendants in the victims' suits.

Senior Judge Ronald R. Lagueux, who is presiding over the raft of civil cases that are pending in U.S. District Court here, told the dozens of lawyers assembled in the Jury Assembly Lounge that he plans to start hearing the defendants' motions to dismiss during the second or third week of next month, DeMaria said.

Lagueux also instructed lawyers for the fire victims and their families that if any of them plan to file amended complaints -- to add or subtract defendants or change allegations they are making -- they need to do that now, before the pretrial discovery process begins, DeMaria said.

According to DeMaria, during the private conference, which lasted more than 1 1/2 hours, Lagueux also introduced the lawyers, some of whom are from out of state, to Magistrate Judge David L. Martin. Martin will be the judicial officer in charge of administering the pretrial discovery -- the exchange of information between the lawyers in preparation for trial.

No one except the lawyers was allowed into the status conference, except one defendant who is currently representing himself in connection with the civil suits. DeMaria identified the pro-se defendant as Howard Julian, who transferred the nightclub's liquor license to Jeffrey and Michael Derderian and who, like the Derderians, is alleged to have also installed "defective material" inside the club "which caused and contributed to fire spread on Feb. 20, 2003."

The fire at the West Warwick nightclub killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others. It broke out after the rock band Great White set off pyrotechnics, which ignited highly flammable polyurethane packing foam that the Derderians had installed as soundproofing. The Derderians and the former tour manager for Great White who set off the fireworks, Daniel Biechele, are each facing 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter in Superior Court. All have pleaded not guilty.