Golden – Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink announced Monday that his office will release 936 pages of documents seized from the homes and vehicles of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold but not the audiotapes and videotapes the two made prior to the nation’s worst school shootings.
“The tapes are very, very disturbing,” Mink said, adding that not releasing them is “the right thing to do.”
He said he was concerned that their release would have “devastating consequences” such as motivating other teens to commit similar violent acts.
Mink said he is prepared to release the documents as soon as possible in response to legal action dating to 2000. However, a Colorado Supreme Court decision gives the parents of Harris and Klebold until July 5 to file formal legal challenges.
“We are simply going to take a day or two to study it and then make whatever legal decisions the family wants to make,” said Gary Lozow, attorney for Klebold’s parents.
Lozow stressed that Tom and Sue Klebold feel some materials could be released, although he declined to specify what they believed could be made public.
Mike Montgomery, a lawyer for the Harris family, did not return a call for comment.
In making his decision, Mink sought input from the families of Columbine victims, law enforcement officials and people affiliated with the school. About half of 56 Columbine families and individuals contacted by Mink responded, as did members of the public. The responses “ran the gamut,” he said, “from release nothing … to release everything.”
He said he had “no illusions” and knew his decision would be controversial.
“Things keep coming out in bits and pieces,” said Rich Petrone, whose stepson Daniel Rohrbough was killed. “We need every single thing they have out now and be done with it. Release it all.”
Petrone said Mink has promised the families twice since he took office in 2003 that he would do what he could to get everything released. Daniel’s parents were plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“You want to speak up for your kids because they’re dead and they (sheriff’s officials) keep trying to shut you up,” Petrone said. “This is outrageous. We’ll have to regroup and see what we’re going to do.”
Randy Brown, who with his wife, Judy, has pressed for Columbine documents and answers for seven years, said Mink is continuing Jefferson County’s lies.
“I would hope the governor or attorney general would step in and get this information released so we can learn the truth about what happened at Columbine,” Brown said.
But Beth Nimmo said she doesn’t want to keep reliving the “ugliness and violence” of the day her daughter, Rachel Scott, was killed – April 20, 1999 – with 11 other students and a teacher.
“I feel like too much information would not be helpful to society,” Nimmo said.
Mark Schnurr, whose daughter Valeen was critically injured at Columbine, joined the suit.
“For the first time, I applaud the Jeffco sheriff’s department for making the right decision,” he said Monday. “Certain things should not be public. What is out there is graphic, and what are we going to learn? It’s not going to help anyone.”
Since 2001, The Denver Post has sought release of Harris’ and Klebold’s diaries, school papers, medical records, annotated high school yearbooks, and notes written by Wayne Harris, and access to the tapes.
Last November, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed with The Post that items seized from the killers’ homes and vehicles are criminal justice records, clearing the way for their release.
Post lawyer Steve Zansberg said Mink missed the point when it came to the newspaper’s argument about the tapes.
The Post “has no interest in obtaining copies or allowing other parties to obtain copies so they can find their way on to the Internet or broadcast or cable television,” Zansberg said. The newspaper supports allowing all members of the public to view the tapes under supervision of the sheriff’s office.
The court told Mink to apply a “balancing test” to determine whether the release would benefit the public.
Mink said he contacted the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit for a review of the tapes that were made hours to months before the shootings.
The tapes, the unit’s report said, could be viewed as “a call to arms” and “provide their audience with blueprints for this lethal school shooting.”
The killers’ anger, hostility and commitment to murdering as many people as they could “really comes out” in the tapes, Mink said.
Only “snippets” of those emotions – how Harris and Klebold didn’t feel they fit in, teenage angst over relationships and sexual frustration – can be found in their writings, Mink added.
The difference, Mink said, lies in the tapes’ allowing the killers to directly distribute their message of “hate and violence.”
While some people may believe the tapes hold the key to what happened at Columbine, Mink said, “I can guarantee that there is nothing to be learned from the tapes.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
What will and won’t be released
Items seized under search warrants from Eric Harris’ and Dylan Klebold’s homes and vehicles that Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink, above, said he is prepared to release (names, phone numbers, addresses and other identifying information about other students have been redacted from the writings):
- Diaries written by Harris and Klebold
- A journal written by Harris’ father, Wayne
- Harris’ and Klebold’s day timers
- School papers
Items that will not be released:
- Audiotapes made by Harris and Klebold
- Videotapes made by Harris and Klebold
- Medical records
- Copyrighted materials such as song lyrics
- Harris’ and Klebold’s yearbooks
