Judge orders Columbine records open for review

GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) -- The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office must make its Columbine investigative report available to the families<br>of two of the slain victims, a district judge ruled Monday.<br><br>Lawyers

Monday, April 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) -- The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office must make its Columbine investigative report available to the families
of two of the slain victims, a district judge ruled Monday.

Lawyers for the families of Dan Rohrbough and Kelly Fleming had requested emergency access to the documents to decide whether to
file lawsuits over the attack at Columbine.

The deadline for filing the lawsuits is Thursday, the first anniversary of the day two teen-age gunmen killed 12 students, a
teacher and themselves.

Judge Brooke Jackson said he was not convinced that the sheriff department's interest in withholding the investigative information outweighed the families' interest in knowing how their son or daughter died.

"I don't see how anybody can argue with a straight face that these people don't have a right to that information," Jackson
said.

Brian Rohrbough hopes the information answers questions about his son's death.

"This is more important as an emotional issue than it is as a legal issue," Rohrbough said. "All I know is what they told me and that's not good enough."

Assistant Jefferson County Attorney Lily Oeffler argued that releasing the information could jeopardize the safety of witnesses, students or teachers.

In a compromise, the judge ordered the sheriff's report available for "their eyes and their eyes only ... solely for the purposes to help the families decide what claims should be filed."

Jackson also ordered that the families be allowed to listen to nearly 32 hours of 911 tapes and 14 hours of police and
firefighters' radio transmission tapes.

He said the families may have copies of helicopter footage and a firefighter training video that used a segment of surveillance tape
from the school's cafeteria during the shootings. Part of the surveillance footage was broadcast on CBS News in October.

Jackson denied access to ballistics reports, surveillance video of the school's commons areas and 200 volumes of raw investigative
material.

A decision on the release of the rest of the material will come only after a court review, Jackson said. No hearing date has been set.