DENVER-
The Colorado Attorney General on Tuesday asked a judge to allow an expert on teen violence to review statements made by the parents of the teenage gunmen who attacked Columbine High School.
Attorney General John Suthers rebutted Jefferson County sheriff’s officials reasons for keeping sworn statements, made as part of lawsuits by victims of the 1999 school massacre that killed 12 students and a teacher, along with the two gunmen.
A magistrate ordered the documents destroyed in 2003, upsetting some victims’ families who said the statements could contain lessons to prevent school shootings. U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock then proposed storing the documents under seal for 25 years.
Suthers earlier said that if the judge decided to send the documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, he should allow University of Colorado researcher Delbert Elliott to access them as part of his work on preventing school violence.
The Jefferson County sheriff’s office has expressed concern that allowing Elliott to review the documents could open access to others.
In documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Suthers said the documents are not subject to state open-records law because they are in the federal court’s possession. He said the court has discretion to set rules for the documents.
The gunmen’s parents prefer that the documents be destroyed but have said they wouldn’t oppose the plan to store them if some information is blacked out.
