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Jeffco asks 2nd judge for guidance on what to do with 'hot potato'
By Karen AbbottDenver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
Jefferson County authorities have asked a second judge to help them figure out what to do with the videotapes that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made before they attacked Columbine High School. "We got stuck with a hot potato," Assistant County Attorney William Tuthill said Wednesday. "We would love for some judicial guidance." Tuthill was appearing in federal court, where the county first asked a judge for help in January in a case still pending before Denver U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch. Also Wednesday, county officials disclosed that they had asked a state judge in Jefferson County late Tuesday to decide the issue. Matsch agreed to keep the federal case on hold while lawyers sort out legal technicalities on which court should handle the issue. Sheriff's deputies seized the videotapes from the teen gunmen's homes after the April 20, 1999, attack. But the sheriff's department contends it doesn't own the tapes, isn't sure who does, and now doesn't know how to respond to numerous requests to view them. The pleas for court guidance follow Sheriff John Stone's showings of the tapes last December — first to reporters from Time magazine, then to reporters from the Denver Rocky Mountain News, and later to other journalists and families of victims. Among other things, Stone has asked Matsch to declare those showings legal. Nevertheless, Stone and other county officials insist they don't want the videotapes made available to the general public. They fear the tapes would lead to "copycat violence." "The consensus of those who have viewed the tapes is that they are extremely disturbing and their release to the general public would sensationalize the killers and possibly portray them as cult heroes — something that the citizens of this state and this country cannot tolerate," Jefferson County Attorney Frank Hutfless said in a statement Wednesday. The parents of Harris and Klebold don't want the tapes made public, either. They contend they own the tapes because they inherited them legally from their sons, who took their own lives in the school library after killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others in the April 20, 1999 attack. November 16, 2000
Jefferson County authorities have asked a second judge to help them figure out what to do with the videotapes that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold made before they attacked Columbine High School.
"We got stuck with a hot potato," Assistant County Attorney William Tuthill said Wednesday. "We would love for some judicial guidance."
Tuthill was appearing in federal court, where the county first asked a judge for help in January in a case still pending before Denver U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch.
Also Wednesday, county officials disclosed that they had asked a state judge in Jefferson County late Tuesday to decide the issue. Matsch agreed to keep the federal case on hold while lawyers sort out legal technicalities on which court should handle the issue.
Sheriff's deputies seized the videotapes from the teen gunmen's homes after the April 20, 1999, attack. But the sheriff's department contends it doesn't own the tapes, isn't sure who does, and now doesn't know how to respond to numerous requests to view them.
The pleas for court guidance follow Sheriff John Stone's showings of the tapes last December — first to reporters from Time magazine, then to reporters from the Denver Rocky Mountain News, and later to other journalists and families of victims. Among other things, Stone has asked Matsch to declare those showings legal.
Nevertheless, Stone and other county officials insist they don't want the videotapes made available to the general public. They fear the tapes would lead to "copycat violence."
"The consensus of those who have viewed the tapes is that they are extremely disturbing and their release to the general public would sensationalize the killers and possibly portray them as cult heroes — something that the citizens of this state and this country cannot tolerate," Jefferson County Attorney Frank Hutfless said in a statement Wednesday.
The parents of Harris and Klebold don't want the tapes made public, either. They contend they own the tapes because they inherited them legally from their sons, who took their own lives in the school library after killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others in the April 20, 1999 attack.
November 16, 2000
