Digital Extra: The Station Fire

The brothers are each charged with 200 counts of manslaughter in the deaths of 100 people at their West Warwick nightclub.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, August 27, 2005

BY MARK ARSENAULT
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Owners of The Station nightclub, who are charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 100 people in a 2003 fire, have asked the court to throw out half the charges against them.

The club owners, Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, and a third defendant, Daniel M. Biechele, each face 200 counts of manslaughter -- 2 for each death charged under 2 separate legal definitions of manslaughter. All three have pleaded not guilty.

In motions filed yesterday in Superior Court, the Derderians argue that the 100 counts charged under the theory of misdemeanor manslaughter should be dismissed. Those charges allege that the Derderians committed a misdemeanor -- violating the fire code in their club -- that resulted in the 100 deaths.

The state alleges that the Derderians insulated their West Warwick club with flammable packing foam, which is forbidden by the fire code. Sparks from a rock band's pyrotechnic display ignited the foam on Feb. 20, 2003. The fire consumed the building in minutes.

Even if the motion were successful, the brothers would each still face 100 counts of manslaughter under a separate legal theory: criminal negligence.

Kathleen M. Hagerty, the Derderians' lawyer who filed the motion on their behalf, said that "unknowingly violating the regulatory fire code" is not a sufficient basis to charge somebody with manslaughter.

Fire-code violations cited by inspectors are not even prosecuted unless a club owner fails to fix the problems on the citation, Hagerty said.

She notes in her motion that West Warwick inspectors visited the club "numerous times while the foam was present" and that the foam "was never mentioned or cited by these trained, professional building and fire-safety officials charged with the duty and responsibility to inspect."

The third defendant, Biechele, filed a similar motion seeking to dismiss the 100 counts of manslaughter he faces under the theory of misdemeanor manslaughter. In his case, the underlying misdemeanor is setting off pyrotechnics inside The Station without a permit.

Biechele also filed a motion to dismiss the case against him "for lack of fair warning," claiming that state law governing pyrotechnics at the time of the fire lacked "any clear definition as to the scope of duty borne by Mr. Biechele."

"Accordingly, any prosecution for manslaughter based on criminal negligence is constitutionally void and cannot stand," the motion states.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said in a statement that his office had been expecting the motions.

"The State will . . . vigorously defend these indictments, which a statewide Grand Jury handed up on December 9, 2003, both in legal papers we will file with the court and in arguments we will make in court," Lynch said. "We look forward to meeting and overcoming this challenge shortly."

Lynch spokesman Michael J. Healey said the next court date in the case is Sept. 12, when Judge Francis J. Darigan is expected to set a deadline for the state to respond to the motions to dismiss.