Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Prosecutors want to know more about 13 transactions at Home Depot in the months after the brothers took over The Station.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, December 9, 2004

BY MARK ARSENAULT
Journal Staff Writer

In the criminal case against the owners of The Station nightclub, Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, prosecutors are seeking a subpoena to compel Home Depot to turn over records relating to transactions at the store that appear on the Derderian brothers' credit card records, according to a motion filed yesterday.

A judge will hear arguments on the state's motion on Dec. 15, according to Michael Healey, spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch. Healey said he could not comment on the records that prosecutors are seeking.

The brothers face manslaughter charges in the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at the West Warwick nightclub that killed 100 people. Daniel Biechele, a concert tour manager, also faces manslaughter charges for allegedly lighting the pyrotechnics that started the fire. The pyrotechnics ignited flammable packing foam that was installed in the club as soundproofing.

The motion seeks transaction records for the Derderians' credit cards at Home Depot in Warwick between April 1 and June 30, 2000. The motion cites 13 specific transactions within that three-month window, listing them by date and cost, with no description of what the brothers bought. The transactions total several hundred dollars.

The time period coincides with when the Derderians took over the club, in late March, and when they are believed to have bought the flammable foam for soundproofing.

Jeffrey Pine, a lawyer for Jeff Derderian, said last night that he had just received the state's motion and had not yet reviewed it.