-Caveat Lector- 1 - Owens urges grand jury 2 - Klebold's autopsy kept secret 3 - Green: Time, silence burying truth 4 - Parents: Tape counters cop 5 - Sheriff rebuts shooting scenario
############################################ 1 --- Columbine grand jury urged Owens: Panel might help end disputes By Mike McPhee Denver Post Staff Writer Friday, January 04, 2002 - Gov. Bill Owens on Thursday urged Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas to consider impaneling a state grand jury to investigate the Columbine shootings. "A grand jury investigation may be helpful in resolving the continuing controversies surrounding Columbine," Owens said. "I encourage the district attorney to reconsider his decision based on the events that have unfolded during the past few days." Thomas has declined to use a grand jury and its subpoena powers to question or review the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office's investigation of the April 20, 1999, shootings. He has said he was satisfied with the conclusions reached by Sheriff John Stone and his department. But on Thursday, Pam Russell, Thomas' spokeswoman, said, "We have never ruled out the possibility of a grand jury." She said the office is waiting for the conclusions of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office before making a decision. That department is reviewing allegations that Denver police Sgt. Daniel O'Shea fatally shot student Daniel Rohrbough, 15. "As of today, not a lot has changed," Russell said. Only a state prosecutor can impanel a state grand jury. Accusations of a cover-up have intensified, particularly in the past two weeks since the Rohrbough family made the friendly-fire allegation in court papers. Information on the incident was never released by Stone and smacks of a cover-up, according to Daniel's father, Brian Rohrbough. On the federal level, a grand jury could only be impaneled by a U.S. attorney or the Department of Justice. Rohrbough and other victims' families said they would welcome such a probe. But Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Suthers, said that office would need "reasonable belief that a federal crime had been committed" before resources would be devoted by federal prosecutors. No request has been received by the U.S. attorney. Both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also said they have not been asked to join in the investigation. Also on Thursday, Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan said he had attempted - unsuccessfully - to obtain a two-hour version of a tape recording Rohrbough's parents say help shed light on the killing. The tape allegedly has Deputy Jim Taylor saying he watched Rohrbough as he was shot and dropped to the sidewalk. Taylor now says he never saw the shootings. And Sullivan confirmed that Taylor never was near enough to witness any shootings that day. Rohrbough and his ex-wife, Sue Petrone, say the conflicting accounts are further proof of a cover-up of the investigation by the Arapahoe and Jefferson County sheriff's offices and by the Denver Police Department. Meanwhile, Randy Brown, whose son Brooks Brown had been targeted by shooter Eric Harris to die, on Thursday pointed out a discrepancy in when Taylor arrived on the scene. The dispatch office had Taylor arriving in his cruiser in a parking lot at 11:50 a.m. Yet Sullivan, in a statement released Wednesday, said Taylor didn't check in with the command post until 12:05 p.m. http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,54%257E313371,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~ 2 --- Klebold's autopsy kept secret By Kieran Nicholson Denver Post Staff Writer Friday, January 04, 2002 - The full autopsy report of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold will not be released to the public. Jefferson County District Judge Brooke Jackson ruled Wednesday "that at least a significant portion of the public in the Denver metropolitan area would be offended, annoyed, even hurt by publication of the full autopsy reports if such publication would cause grief and anguish to the victims' families and friends." Jackson's ruling denied a request by the Rocky Mountain News to release the full report. The case - originally filed in May 1999 by victims' families - went to the Court of Appeals before being sent back to District Court for its decision. Partial summaries of the reports have been released. The full autopsy reports on killer Eric Harris and victims Daniel Rohrbough and Isaiah Shoels have been released. "Whether or not one considers them blameworthy for the actions of their son . . . they are parents who have lost a child," Jackson wrote of Thomas and Susan Klebold. "And they are parents who state . . . that they will be terribly hurt if the graphic details of their son's autopsy are published. . . ." The News sought the report, among other reasons, in hopes of clearing up questions surrounding Klebold's fatal wound. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation's Columbine Crime Scene Report notes that a TEC-9 pistol was found in Klebold's right hand. Klebold was left-handed and was shot in the left side of his head. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has concluded that Harris and Klebold committed a double suicide. Attorney Marc Flink, who represents the News, had not seen the order and declined comment. http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,54%257E313347,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~ 3 --- Time, silence burying truth By Chuck Green Denver Post Columnist Friday, January 04, 2002 - It's getting a little old, and a little tiresome, and a little sad - but it's also becoming, week by week, and month by month, and year by year, and story by story (don't you just hate the media?) all too real. And isn't that what's so disappointing? It's becoming all too real. The reality is that, almost three years after the carnage at Columbine, we still don't know what happened, or why. Isn't that sad? Isn't that tiresome? Isn't that disappointing? Isn't that true? First of all, the parents of killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold haven't yet told us what was going on in the households of the murderers prior to the massacre. The dead killers' parents have chosen to value their own privacy over society's security. If you listen to their silence, they have nothing to tell us. That is so sad, because they must have so much to say, yet they won't utter a word. Oh, how very, very sad - and oh, how very, very selfish. Maybe their action tells us everything we need to know. Maybe that's how they raised the two killers - to take care of themselves first, and be damned with everyone else, no matter what toll it takes. Oh, how sad. Oh, how real. And then there is the even-worse case of Sheriff John Stonewall. Yet the story is the same. Even more sad. Even more real. Sheriff Stonewall, too, has put himself first. He has lied to the parents of the murdered. He has lied to his colleagues. He has lied to his constituents. He has lied to his state. And he has lied to his nation. It's getting a little tiresome, isn't it? Even today, almost three years after America's attention was riveted to live TV as 13 defenseless victims were massacred at Columbine, the nation is still waiting the truth. And how simple can it be to know the truth, if only those who hold it would have the courage and integrity to share it? Is that too much to ask? The Klebolds and the Harrises might have private demons to keep them quiet. But that doesn't excuse all the others. Starting with Sheriff Stonewall, who refused to cooperate with a governor's commission investigating the Columbine tragedy, and stretching all the way to the governor himself, who declined to give his commissioners the power to compel testimony, truth has become the 14th victim of Columbine. How very, very sad. So now the public trust is in the hands of a county sheriff, picked by Stonewall himself, and we are supposed to believe he can discover the needle of truth hidden in Stonewall's own haystack of lies and deceit. How very, very sad. Gov. Bill Owens has steadfastly refused to appoint a special prosecutor to empanel a grand jury. Under two presidents, the U.S. government repeatedly has turned a deaf ear to pleas for a federal inquiry. And so the families of the murdered keep wandering in their search for truth, turning to anyone who will listen to their cries for help, as the nation waits for answers. Three years should be long enough to wait. But unless Owens exerts the full force of his office or the U.S. Justice Department intervenes, the wait will never end. And truth will be buried with the 13 other victims of Columbine. Chuck Green's commentaries appear Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,54%257E313331,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~ 4 --- Columbine parents reveal tape Recording proves officer saw son shot, they say By Mike McPhee and Ryan Morgan The Denver Post Thursday, January 03, 2002 - The parents of slain Columbine High School student Daniel Rohrbough on Wednesday played a taped conversation they say proves an Arapahoe County sheriff's deputy watched as their son was fatally shot. Rohrbough's parents contend their 15-year-old son was shot by Denver Police officer Daniel O'Shea and that Deputy Jim Taylor saw the shooting while standing near O'Shea. In the tape, which was secretly recorded, a man said to be Taylor says he saw "20 or 30" kids running from the school when one of the boys dropped on the sidewalk. "It was Dan, and I didn't know that until I seen the photo the next morning in the newspaper that it was the boy that I seen," Taylor said in a transcript of the tape released Wednesday by Daniel's father, Brian Rohrbough. Taylor, 42, an officer since 1988, was placed on paid administrative leave after the tape recording was handed over to Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan on Wednesday. In a hand-written statement issued Wednesday, Taylor said: "Rich Petrone asked me about what went on at Columbine and I made statements about what I had seen on TV or in the newspaper. It is not true that I saw Daniel Rohrbough get shot or any other person." His statement was issued days after Sullivan said Taylor couldn't have seen what happened. Taylor could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Brian Rohrbough disputed the assertions made by Sullivan and Taylor. "We know that's a lie because part of the recording included Pam's (wife of Deputy Taylor) comments confirming that he came home on the night of April 20th and said he'd seen a kid get shot and that the kid looked a lot like his son Brad (Taylor)," Brian Rohrbough said. A lawsuit by Rohrbough's parents asserts that the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has covered up the investigation of the April 20, 1999, massacre. On Wednesday, the couple and families of three other slain students said they would welcome a federal grand jury investigation of the way the case has been handled. The El Paso County Sheriff's Office will review the friendly-fire allegations at the request of Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone. The tape of the conversation with Taylor was made 11 months after the shootings. It was recorded by Rohrbough's mother, Sue Petrone, and his stepfather, Rich Petrone, at their home during a social visit by the Taylors. Taylor did not know he was being recorded, according to Sullivan, although Taylor does not mention that in his statement. The practice is legal in Colorado. Sue Petrone and the Taylors had been close friends for 20 years. Sullivan had said Monday that Taylor was nowhere near where Daniel Rohrbough was shot and killed. Taylor "was never on the south/west portion of Columbine High School and as a result was never in a position to witness or hear a weapon being fired from that location," Sullivan said in a news release. "Deputy Taylor never heard any gun shots on April 20th and never saw any deceased victims on April 20th." Sullivan said Taylor arrived at the law enforcement command post about 12:05 p.m. and was assigned to the east side of the school building five minutes later. In the recording, Taylor is heard to say he was trying to get to the east side from the parking lot. "I'd already pulled in the parking lot so I'm trying to beat feet to the east side of the building. I see this through my (car) window, and I'm getting called to respond to the other side of the building cause they got a shooter on the east side of the building," he says. Taylor adds: "I remember a Denver cop or a Lakewood cop off to my left-hand side." Rohrbough's attorney, Barry Arrington, contends that cop was O'Shea, firing his 9mm machine gun. "You could hear glass breaking," Taylor says. "You could see kids running everywhere and that's when I see the boy coming down the sidewalk you know, and I see him just fall down. "That's the first thing I told Pam was that you know, I seen some kid get shot," he said in the recording. http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,54%257E311073,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~ 5 --- Sheriff rebuts shooting scenario By Howard Pankratz Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer Tuesday, January 01, 2002 - Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan denied Monday that one of his deputies saw Columbine student Daniel Rohrbough shot or saw a Denver police sergeant in a position where he could have fired the shot. Last week, a lawyer for Rohrbough's parents claimed physical evidence was consistent with the fatal shot coming from a 9mm submachine gun fired by Denver Police Sgt. Dan O'Shea and that O'Shea was in a position where he could have shot Rohrbough. Lawyer Barry Arrington based his allegations on what he claimed were the observations of Arapahoe County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Taylor. According to Arrington, Taylor reported seeing Rohrbough running down the hill with a group of students and saw him drop to the ground after being shot. Taylor allegedly also reported there was a Denver police officer to his left, and he remembered the sound of machine gun fire. Arrington claimed these reports were consistent with O'Shea firing the fatal shot. But Taylor told investigators Monday that he was on the other side of the school and wasn't in a position to see either Rohrbough or O'Shea, according to Sullivan. "Taylor was never on the southwest portion of Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, and as a result was never in a position to witness or hear a weapon being fired from that location," said Sullivan. "Taylor never heard any gun shots on April 20 and never saw any deceased victims on April 20." Sullivan said Taylor was "surprised and alarmed" by the statements. Arrington, however, defended his allegations late Monday. He said Taylor has talked to Sue Petrone, Rohrbough's mother, on a couple of occasions and described the incident in the terms outlined in a federal court motion. About a year after the shooting, Petrone and her husband Rich met with Taylor and tape-recorded the statement, said Arrington. "The allegations made in the federal court motion were based upon Taylor's statements as set forth in a transcript of the tape recording," said Arrington. He said the tape will be made public in the near future. Brian Rohrbough, Daniel's father, who has known Taylor for nearly 20 years, said, "This is just another example of the "Blue Line' closing ranks to protect one of their own. It is yet another example of a law enforcement agency making a blatantly false statement about Columbine." http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,54%257E307874,00.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! 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