WARWICK, R.I.-
Relatives of the 100 people killed in a nightclub fire vented their grief and fury and berated the judge Friday, but were unable to derail a plea bargain in which one of the club’s owners received four years behind bars and the other got no prison time at all.
Michael Derderian, who received the prison sentence, and his brother, Jeffrey, pleaded no contest to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the 2003 fire, which was sparked by a band’s pyrotechnics and quickly engulfed The Station nightclub because they had installed highly flammable foam to ease neighbors’ noise concerns.
Judge Francis Darigan refused to reconsider the plea bargains, which he said would avoid a long, heartwrenching trial. Victims’ families were angry not only over the sentences but because they believed a trial would have told them more about how and why their loved ones died.
“Lady Justice in Rhode Island is blind, but she’s also deaf,” testified Jay McLaughlin, the brother-in-law of victims Sandy and Michael Hoogasian. Other family members applauded as he returned to his seat.
Shortly before the judge imposed the sentence, Jeffrey Derderian–a 39-year-old former television reporter who was there that night while a TV cameraman filmed footage for a story on safety in public places–tearfully apologized for the heartache he had caused and recounted the chaotic scene.
“The fire moved so fast. I was scared. I wish I did a better job,” he said. “There are many days that I wish I didn’t make it out of that building, because if I didn’t maybe some of these familes would feel better.
“I know you would have liked it if I died too,” he added.
Michael Derderian, 45, who until Friday had not spoken publicly about the fire, also apologized and said he never intended for the fire to happen.
“We will do everything we can so that every question can be answered–so that all the facts, not just some of them come out,” he said.
The brothers said they did not know the foam was flammable.
“If I had known now what that foam was, we definitely would have done things differently,” Michael Derderian said. “We would have never ever put our patrons, our employees, our families and our friends at risk.”
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
