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The Station Club Owners To Plead No Contest To Involuntary Manslaughter

posted Sep 26, 2006 at 9:44 AM by deathbringer.  (6 Comments)

Photo of Great White

Band Photo: Great White (?)

The Associated Press reports that the owners of Rhode Island nightclub, The Station, where a 2003 fire killed 100 people during a Great White concert will plead no contest to involuntary manslaughter charges, and only one will have to serve prison time, their lawyer said last week. Victims' relatives were outraged.

Kathleen Hagerty said brothers Jeffrey and Michael Derderian will enter the pleas more than 3 1/2 years after pyrotechnics ignited foam soundproofing while Great White was playing at the Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I.

Hagerty confirmed that Michael Derderian will serve 4 years in a minimum security prison, with eligibility for a work release program, and that Jeffrey Derderian will receive a suspended 10-year sentence.

Relatives of those killed were furious about what they considered to be light punishments for the brothers' role in the fourth-deadliest fire in U.S. history, a tragedy that touched untold thousands of people in the nation's smallest state.

In May, former Great White tour manager Daniel Biechele was sentenced to four years in prison for igniting the pyrotechnics without the required permit. He pleaded guilty in February to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Read the full article at Billboard.com.

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6 Comments on "Club Owners To Plead No Contest To Manslaughter"

karla's avatar

Member

1. karla writes:

hahahahah thats makes me so damn happy it almost made me cry from joy i think "involuntary" manslaughter is little to what they really deserved

# Sep 26, 2006 @ 4:30 PM ET | IP Logged Reveal posts originating from the same IP address
Anonymous Reader

2. edge-of-forever writes:

punishing these men will solve nothing. the relatives of the fire victims just love to place the blame and sentence people even though this was all just a big accident. to bad it wont bring back their loved ones.

# Sep 26, 2006 @ 4:35 PM ET | IP Logged Reveal posts originating from the same IP address
karla's avatar

Member

3. karla writes:

yeah yeah but do they know who caused teh accident?

# Sep 26, 2006 @ 4:42 PM ET | IP Logged Reveal posts originating from the same IP address
Anonymous Reader

4. The RI Heretic writes:

Being from RI and living 30 min from the accident and having been to the place before it went down, the owners of the place should have to server nothing... it was a chain of failures that the building wasnt inspected right so should the inspectors have to server jail time as well?? and if there was a permit to the pryo's would there have been this tragedy??

lots of if's, and's, but's... but its a bunch of BS the owners have to server time... the tour manager is understable

# Sep 27, 2006 @ 2:41 AM ET | IP Logged Reveal posts originating from the same IP address
karla's avatar

Member

5. karla writes:

ur right it was the inspectors fault in a way

# Sep 27, 2006 @ 2:42 PM ET | IP Logged Reveal posts originating from the same IP address
BLACKDOG's avatar

Supporter

6. BLACKDOG writes:

Your right.It was a commedy of error's unfortunatley that led to the tragedy.f***ed up but true.

# Sep 27, 2006 @ 4:53 PM ET | IP Logged Reveal posts originating from the same IP address

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