Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Lead vocalist Jack Russell says he still fears possible criminal charges in The Station fire.

09:43 AM EST on Monday, January 31, 2005

BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Jack Russell, the leader singer for Great White, is refusing to answer the federal civil suits filed against him by victims of The Station nightclub fire because, he says, he still fears that he may be criminally charged in connection with the fire.

Reuters file photo

Jack Russell, of the band Great White, sits with guitarist Mark Kendall in West Warwick in this 2003 photo.

In papers filed in U.S. District Court, Providence, Russell's lawyers say that he "faces a real possibility of criminal prosecution arising out of, and related to" the fire of Feb. 20, 2003, and that therefore, he is asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and declining to answer the allegations raised in the civil suits.

Michael J. Healey, spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, said Friday that "there is no open grand jury investigation going on" in connection with the West Warwick nightclub fire, and that the Rhode Island attorney general's office has no plans to prosecute anyone besides the three defendants currently under indictment.

"But the fact he feels he still needs to take the Fifth says, loud and clear, that we did not immunize him and absolutely made no promises to him" in speaking with him after the fire, Healey said. Asked whether Russell has agreed to testify for the prosecution against his former band member, Daniel Biechele, who stands indicted with the two owners of the nightclub -- Michael and Jeffrey Derderian -- on 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter, Healey refused comment.

"I can't talk to you about that question," he said, citing a gag order issued by Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr., who is presiding over the criminal cases.

Calls last week to the band's lawyers were not returned.

One hundred people died in The Station fire, and more than 200 others were injured in the blaze -- the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. At least 440 people were inside the club when the fire broke out.

Darigan is next scheduled to meet with prosecutors and lawyers for the criminal defendants on Feb. 18, though the trial of the criminal case is still at least a year away.

Lawyers for the victims have been trying, to date without success, to get the attorney general's office to give them some of the undamaged foam that was seized by law-enforcement officials from the basement of the nightclub after the fire, so that their expert can perform a series of intricate tests that would identify the components in the foam, and its manufacturer.

The civil lawyers assert, in court papers, that two manufacturers sold foam to the Johnston company from which the Derderians bought their foam. The expert hired by the civil lawyers, Carl L. Duncan, of Kentucky, says in an affidavit that he needs at least one square foot from each sheet of foam that the state seized from The Station, as well as control samples from any foam already tested by the prosecution's expert.

Judge Darigan has indicated that he will allow the civil lawyers to present legal arguments to him before he gives the go-ahead for further foam testing by proscutors and criminal-defense lawyers.

But the civil lawyers have also filed a motion in federal court asking Senior U.S. Judge Ronald R. Lagueux to order the state to turn over some of the foam to them, so they can keep it for later testing by Duncan.

Lynch's office is objecting to the motion filed with Lagueux. James Lee, chief of the civil division at the attorney general's office, said Friday that the state believes Darigan should decide the foam-access issue. He also noted that the civil lawyers already have foam in their possession that can be used for testing.

Max Wistow, a lawyer representing more than 100 of the fire victims, said yesterday that the foam the civil lawyers currently have in storage is "very limited in amount, is fire damaged, and was exposed to the elements for at least a month after the fire."

"The foam we're fighting about was obtained by the state from the basement of the nightclub and was not damaged by the fire at all," Wistow said. "It's in pristine condition." He said he understood that 69 to 71 square feet of foam were taken from the basement.

There are currently eight civil lawsuits pending in U.S. District Court, Providence, on behalf of victims of The Station fire and their survivors.

Lagueux currently has under consideration several motions to dismiss, filed by those who are being sued in connection with the blaze.