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December 21, 2006

Judge: Station fire jury transcripts may be released

PROVIDENCE -- A Superior Court judge has ruled that the public may see transcripts from the secret grand jury that investigated The Station nightclub fire.

Judge Joseph F. Rodgers Jr., the presiding judge of the Superior Court, heard legal arguments from the attorney general, a lawyer for the grand jury and other lawyers last week about whether to disclose transcripts of testimony given to the grand jury.

This is believed to be only the second time that a Rhode Island court has allowed the wholesale public release of grand jury testimony. The first was the case of Sgt. Cornel Young Jr., the off-duty Providence police officer shot by fellow officers in 2000.

Rodgers cited the “unique circumstances” of the case in granting Attorney General Patrick Lynch's petition to disclose the testimony. The judge limited the release to the materials sought in the attorney general’s initial petition – the transcripts of the grand jury – and the instructions of law given the grand jury by the attorney general.

Rodgers said he would not expand the scope of the petition beyond the transcripts, and he reserved judgment on disclosure of any additional materials. He specifically denied requests by the Derderians' lawyers to include exhibits presented to the grand jury, as well as other evidence gathered by the attorney general not shown to the panel.

No timetable has been set for the release of the transcripts.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 3:38 PM | Permalink

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