AURORA, Colo.—The city of Aurora has reported spending about $462,000 so far on overtime costs for police officers and civilian employees following the deadly shooting rampage at a movie theater July 20.
That’s about one-fourth of the year’s law-enforcement budget for overtime pay, The Denver Post reported ( ), and costs are still adding up.
The city has applied for a federal grant to help cover the expenses, which include costs of investigators, emergency responders, security for a vigil and protection for visiting dignitaries.
Others also have incurred costs due to the theater attack, which killed 12 and injured 58.
James Holmes, a former doctoral student in the neuroscience program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, is charged in the case.
The university has agreed to pay $505 an hour for a lawyer from the firm Perkins Coie to review what officials there knew about Holmes and when. The firm will bill the university $245 an hour or more for associates who are brought on to help out and $205 an hour for paralegals, according to an agreement signed July 30.
The university has hired the firm Senter Goldfarb & Rice to represent a campus police officer, according to a letter from the firm to the university.
The university is paying lead attorney Thomas Rice and any of his senior partners $225 an hour. Other partners would receive $185 an hour and associates, $165 an hour.
A third firm, Hall & Evans, is representing psychiatrist Lynne Fenton, whom Holmes’ attorneys say Holmes had sought out for help. Contract terms for that firm weren’t immediately available.
The university is paying for the attorneys from a combination of legal contingency funds and interest earnings from university deposits.
Meanwhile, the city of Aurora is also spending $300 an hour to pay an attorney to respond to numerous open-records requests from the media and others.
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Information from: The Denver Post,
