Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Information on tests the defendants want to make is due by June 10, and motions for dismissal of the case, by June 20.

09:14 AM EDT on Friday, May 27, 2005

BY PAUL EDWARD PARKER
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The state Superior Court judge handling the criminal case against three men charged with manslaughter in the Station nightclub fire set a schedule yesterday for the defendants' attempts to dismiss the case against them.

Brothers Michael A. and Jeffrey A. Derderian, co-owners of the West Warwick nightclub, and Daniel M. Biechele, the road manager for the rock band Great White, are charged with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of the 100 people claimed by the fire on the night of Feb. 20, 2003.

Biechele set off fireworks inside The Station, which ignited the highly flammable polyurethane foam that had been installed on the club walls to quell neighbors' complaints about noise.

Darigan ruled yesterday that Biechele and the Derderians have until June 20 to file motions to dismiss the charges against them. State prosecutors will then have until July 11 to file a response, and a hearing on the matter has been set for July 22.

Also yesterday, Darigan gave the defendants until June 10 to file information about scientific tests they want to perform on six pieces of undamaged foam seized from the club's basement after the fire. Prosecutors will not be privy to the information because the nature of the tests is covered under attorney-client privilege. That could change, however, if the defendants decide to present the information at trial.

Darigan said he expects the pace of pretrial preparations to slow down over the summer months. But, if the case is not dismissed, he hopes in September to pick a trial date and discuss where the trial might be held. The trial is expected to draw large numbers of spectators, including families of the 100 people who died and the more than 200 who were injured in the fire.

The judge said the trial could start in January.