By Eric Tucker
The Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Prosecutors who convened a grand jury to investigate a nightclub fire that killed 100 people kept the panel focused narrowly on the three men ultimately held responsible and advised against charging inspectors, documents released Thursday showed.
When the club owners and the Great White band’s tour manager were charged in December 2003, the limited scope of the indictments enraged some victims’ relatives, who had hoped fire inspectors or perhaps even band members would be held legally accountable.
The once-secret transcripts showed that prosecutors told the grand jurors fire inspectors cannot be charged under Rhode Island law if their actions on the job were made in good faith.
Prosecutor Mike Stone said evidence would have to show a fire marshal purposely ignored a problem for grand jurors to charge him.
One juror asked: “If the fire marshal did nothing, not responsible for anything, why have a fire marshal?”
“Sir, you would have to ask the General Assembly that,” Prosecutor William Ferland replied.
The documents were released due to an open records request by The Associated Press, The Providence Journal and The Boston Globe and a request by the attorney general’s office to make public grand jury testimony that is usually secret.
The released material included videos that show the panic the fire caused. In one, firefighters struggle to get through a burning doorway as flames and smoke billow and police ask stunned bystanders whether they’re missing family or friends.
Club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian pleaded no contest to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick in February 2003. Jeffrey Derderian was sentenced to probation and community service and his brother, who bought the flammable soundproofing foam that lined the club walls, is serving four years in prison.
Tour manager Daniel Biechele, who set up and ignited the pyrotechnics display that started the fire, pleaded guilty to the same charges and is serving four years in prison.
In an interview with state police that was among documents released last year, Fire Marshal Denis Larocque said he did not notice the foam on the walls during a November 2002 inspection. He said he was focused then on an exit door that opened the wrong way and had been cited once before as violating the fire code.
A lawyer for Larocque, who is among roughly 300 people and companies being sued by victims’ families and those injured in the blaze, declined to comment Thursday. Larocque is no longer fire marshal but still works for the fire department.