Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Superior Judge Francis J. Darigan says lawyers for the nightclub's owners should not have been allowed to interview the jurors.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, May 21, 2005

BY TRACY BRETON
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Lawyers for the owners of The Station nightclub may not continue to interview any more of the grand jurors who heard the case against their clients, Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan ruled yesterday.

Darigan said that lawyers for Michael A. and Jeffrey A. Derderian -- who each face 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at their West Warwick nightclub -- had no right to question grand jurors about the secret proceedings and have not demonstrated any valid reason why they should be permitted to do so.

To allow defendants to question grand jurors "would have a chilling effect" on future grand juries and their decisions on whether to return indictments, the judge said. Grand jurors, he said, should be free to deliberate in private and not have to worry that in the future, a target of an investigation will come around to question them.

"To allow these defendants to contact and interview grand jurors at this time can impact a future grand jury's freedom to deliberate," the judge said. "Future jurors who are worried that they can be contacted by defense attorneys or subjects of their investigation may let that worry affect their decision and deliberations."

The Derderians' lawyers told the court that based on initial interviews they have conducted with some of the grand jurors in The Station fire case, they believe that there may have been excessive absences on the part of the panel that returned the indictments, which could invalidate the proceedings.

But Darigan pointed out that based on evidence presented by the prosecution and defendants, the necessary quorum was present at each of the 34 grand jury sessions in the Derderians' case and that most of the grand jurors who voted to return indictments heard almost 100 percent of the evidence.

"In this state," he said, "grand jurors who vote to return an indictment need not hear all evidence" presented by the prosecution. He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that an indictment is valid even if some grand jurors are absent for a portion of the proceedings. He also pointed out that Rhode Island is one of a minority of states in which prosecutors have no duty to present evidence that might be favorable to a target of an investigation.

A defendant has a chance to present his side of the case when he's tried, if he chooses to do so, the judge told the Derderians, who were present in court for his decision.

In ruling, Darigan made it clear that he was not happy with the fact that the defense lawyers had already done some questioning. "This court does not approve of defendants' conduct with former grand jurors," he said, and "will not allow any further questioning" of them.

The prosecution had opposed the Derderians' plan to continue interviewing grand jurors, claiming there was nothing wrong with the way the proceedings were conducted and that the defense had no right to do such interviews without court permission. They also argued that under court rules, grand jurors who were questioned by the defendants could be subject to contempt proceedings if they revealed secret information about the proceedings.

In other court action yesterday, Darigan granted a request by prosecutors to subpoena financial records of the Derderians and Derco LLC, the corporate entity under which they operated The Station. But the judge said that for now, the records would be kept under seal in his custody. He said he would decide later whether the state would be allowed to use them as evidence at trial.

Darigan also announced that, as a result of a meeting earlier this week with U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Martin -- who is presiding over a raft of civil cases filed by the fire victims who are seeking money damages -- lawyers for the victims will soon be getting one square foot from each of the remaining pieces of polyurethane foam that were found in the charred ruins of the nightclub. The civil lawyers want to test the highly flammable foam, which the Derderians bought as soundproofing for the walls and ceiling of their club, to ascertain with certainty who manufactured it before the statute of limitations passes for adding defendants to the civil suits.

The foam is a centerpiece of the civil and criminal cases stemming from the nightclub fire, in which 100 people died and more than 200 others were injured. The fire started when Daniel M. Biechele, the former tour manager for the rock band Great White -- who is also facing manslaughter charges -- set off fireworks inside The Station, igniting the foam.

Staff writer Tracy Breton can be reached at tbreton [at] projo.com or 277-7362