Digital Extra: The Station Fire

In what one law professor calls an unusual move, a Superior Court judge announces the agreement one week before Daniel M. Biechele is expected to enter the plea.

01:32 AM EST on Wednesday, February 1, 2006

BY PAUL EDWARD PARKER
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The man who shot off the fireworks that ignited the fire that consumed The Station nightclub and killed 100 people has agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and serve up to 10 years in prison, a Superior Court judge announced yesterday.

Daniel M. Biechele, who was tour manager for the rock band Great White on the night of the Feb. 20, 2003, fire, will appear in Superior Court on Tuesday to formally enter his guilty plea, Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. announced yesterday in court.

"Mr. Biechele never intended to harm anyone," his lawyer, Thomas G. Briody, said on the courthouse steps after Darigan's announcement. "He deeply regrets the actions of that evening and the harm that they caused. He hopes this decision will give some small measure of peace" to the families of the victims.

After the court session, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, the state's top prosecutor, issued a statement. "We know that there is no measure of justice capable of addressing the depth of devastation, pain and heartache caused by a tragedy of the magnitude of the Station fire," Lynch said. "The fire claimed many more victims than the 100 people who tragically perished. There are their families and friends. There are the more than 200 injured and their families and friends. There are those who were at The Station that night who were not injured but are, like so many, haunted by the memories. There are thousands of stories of dreams destroyed and the fulfillment of promise ended, delayed or diminished."

The nightclub burned down, killing 100 people and injuring more than 200 others, after the fireworks Biechele ignited showered sparks on the walls of the building. The walls had been covered with highly flammable polyurethane foam as soundproofing after neighbors complained about noise. The foam helped the fire spread rapidly through the building, raising temperatures hundreds of degrees in about 90 seconds.

Biechele and the brothers who owned the West Warwick nightclub, Michael A. and Jeffrey A. Derderian, were each charged with 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter, two for each of the victims. They were charged under two different theories of manslaughter: misdemeanor manslaughter, in which someone commits a misdemeanor that leads to someone's death, and gross negligence, in which a careless act leads to someone's death.

Biechele, 29, of Florida, will plead to the 100 misdemeanor manslaughter counts against him. The 100 gross negligence counts will be dismissed because, under the Constitution's protection against double jeopardy, no one can be punished twice for the same crime. The misdemeanor Biechele committed was shooting off fireworks without a permit.

Biechele and each of the Derderians were charged in separate cases, rather than as codefendants in the same. Yesterday's announcement of Biechele's decision to plead guilty has no formal effect on the Derderians' cases, though it could affect their legal strategies. It also may accelerate the schedule of their trials. Biechele had been scheduled to go to trial May 1, to be followed by Michael Derderian, then Jeffrey Derderian. No date for the other trials has been announced.

Although Biechele will enter his plea on Tuesday, his sentence will not be determined then, Darigan said yesterday. The 10 years in prison is the maximum to which Biechele could be sentenced, but Darigan has the discretion to impose any lesser sentence, including one with no prison time. The judge could also mete out a longer sentence, but suspend a portion of it. As an example, it could be a 15-year sentence, with 10 years to serve and 5 years suspended. Biechele would only have to serve those additional 5 years if he did not comply with conditions of probation after his release.

Before Biechele is sentenced, the Probation Department will prepare a presentence report about Biechele. The report will examine him, his family, his work history and his criminal record, if he has one. The report will also take into account information provided by the families of the victims.

Also, prosecutors and defense lawyers will prepare legal memoranda telling the court what they think an appropriate sentence would be.

And, the families of the victims will be able to provide victim impact statements.

It could be next month or April before Biechele is sentenced. He will enter his plea at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Licht Judicial Complex, between Benefit and South Main streets in Providence, in a courtroom to be determined later.

Darigan read aloud from the bench an explanation and rationale for the plea, which Roger Williams University law Prof. David M. Zlotnick found to be highly unusual.

The judge said the plea represents a resolution of the Biechele case that avoids "a lengthy and costly trial that could be difficult for the families of the victims and the entire Rhode Island community."

Zlotnick said the judge's statement is the type of public remark usually made by a prosecutor and is especially unusual because it preceded the entry of the plea itself.

But he said that it seemed to be "a thoughtful and sensitive gesture to the families." It serves the prosecution's interest to have it come from Darigan and "be cloaked in the aura of judicial authority," he said.

Court spokesman Craig Berke said the judge made the statement due to the high degree of public interest and the extraordinary number of interested parties.

A maximum sentence of 10 years to serve seems appropriate, Zlotnick said. "This guy messed up bad," but he did not intend to harm anyone, the professor said.

Biechele's prospective plea serves the prosecution's interest in at least one other way, according to Zlotnick, because it reduces the number of trials from three to two. That reduces the chance that witnesses will give contradictory statements in different trials that defense lawyers can exploit, he said.

Biechele and the Derderians were indicted in December 2003, about 10 months after the fire. The criminal case is only one prong of the legal action stemming from the fire. Hundreds of plaintiffs are suing scores of defendants in civil court, seeking monetary damages resulting from the fire. Plus, the Derderians have been sued in Workers Compensation Court for not maintaining insurance coverage for their workers, and the Derderians have filed for bankruptcy.

In the criminal case, both sides have sparred over various pretrial motions, notably including arguments over what type of testing should be done on polyurethane foam recovered from the nightclub's basement and over whether the charges should be dismissed because, the defendants said, prosecutors acted improperly in how they presented the case to the grand jury.

Darigan said yesterday that discussions about a plea agreement did not begin until after the judge in December rejected the defendants' motion to dismiss the charges.

With a report from staff writer Gregory Smith.

pparker@projo.com / (401) 277-7360