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Release Columbine information

Tuesday, February 6 at 10:40 AM

This Speakout has not been edited

By Randy Brown, Littleton

An open letter to Justice Babcock, Justice Babcock, I sat in your court today, Jan. 26, 2007, and listened to your review of the case regarding the destruction of the Columbine documents that are still sealed under your court order. I have been a part of that argument, not only through my involvement with the ColumbineTragedy and my wife’s deposition, which is one of the items in discussion, but also as a Member of the Attorney General’s Columbine Records Task Force. Do you remember that Task Force? It is the one that, through A.G. Salazar’s courage and conviction, revealed the cover up and proved the corruption of Jefferson County with regard to the Columbine Tragedy and their secret meetings. You reviewed, with a long dissertation, your rulings on the Columbine Case. It is so long and convoluted that you, even with the written notes in front of you, left out one of your rulings from 2006. This was ,rather comically, pointed out by one of the attorneys in front of you. He had no notes. This is a long and complicated case,made so mostly by your lack of decision making ability, and your obvious goal of destroying these documents. It has been difficult to find legal reasons to justify the destruction of all of these documents, so your decisions and your ruminations are often so illogical that they defy explanation.

As an example: In court today you used, as a valuable resource, the fact that the current Sheriff of Jefferson County had decided, with his great wisdom, to not make public the “basement tapes". Let’s ignore for a moment the absurdity of placing such an important decision in the hands of a local sheriff with no legal training, and look at the big picture. This Sheriff is the Sheriff for Jefferson County. His attorney Frank Hutfless and many of its high ranking officials were involved in the coverup of the evidence of Columbine from the beginning, a fact proven by our then Attorney General Ken Salazar. You must be aware of this as one of the residing judges involved in the Columbine Tragedy. Nevertheless, you discount completely any possible underlying motivation by this county, that, it has been proven, acted criminally and outside of any possible interpretation of the law by concealing these records and others from the families of the murdered children at Columbine. You have ignored the motivation of the county in keeping these documents secret. Their attorney sits in court, agreeing with the attorneys for the killers parents, and you put the decision for the destruction of this sensitive material in the hands of the sheriff, an official of that county. This decision should have been yours,or someone without a vested interest in keeping it secret. If you could not do that you should have recused yourself and let a judge make this decision in a way that would protect the innocent and the truth, not protect the corruption of Jefferson County and the guilt of the parents of murderers.

You would not let me speak at this hearing. You would not let an informed member of the task force give you informaiton. I can only determine from that lack of interest that you have, in this case, no interest in justice being carried out.

I was sitting next to my wife. She has had her depositoin seized by your Special Master,even before it was transcribed. All of these depostions were seized, along with all information the court reporter had, many years ago. This is an unprecedeted step, and, in my opinion shows a collusion between this court and the Jefferson County cover up. All we heard from the attorneys involved was how unusual this was, how they had never heard of this being done before. What is it your are trying to hide? What is it you have agreed to hide?

I was sitting in front of Brian Rorbough. You may know, and maybe you do not know, that his son was killed at Columbine. He has been lied to by the Jefferson County Sheriffs office and the Jefferson County Attorneys. He has been denied information that could have helped him discover the truth about his son’s death at the hands of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. He has been denied basic civil rights, in that he was not given by the opposing counsel in his lawsuit all of the available information. That information was denied him by the Jefferson County Attorneys, and now it is being denied him by you. Now it will be destroyed by your court order. Yet you choose to ignore this serious problem, and continue to dwell on the reasons for not allowing the rest of the facts about this case to be made public.

Let’s discuss for a moment the “basement videos". These have been seen by the press and many members of the public. They have been roughly transcibed and are available to anyone who wants to review them. I have seen them. They are not a blueprint for a Columbine Tragedy. They are not threatening . They show these two stupid boys talking and drinking and playing with guns. Tapes with a true violent content have already been released by the Sheriffs Dept., including the Rampart Range videos which show them firing weapons and talking about “bullets in someone’s brain", yet you agree wth the Sheriff that this tape should be kept secret. Judge Babcock, go rent the movie “Natural Born Killers” and stay up past your normal bedtime and see what is truly dangerous. You are making decisions based on absurd and incorrect assumptions. Some of those assumptions are: 1) You can trust Jefferson County. 2) Jefferson County has the best interests of children and other people and the law as their foremost thought. 3) The parents of Columbine who lost children do not deserve to know the truth. 4) The documents being withheld are dangerous.

They are not. They tell the truth. They tell the truth about Columbine and bullying and about the failures of Jefferson County. Why is a judge afraid of the truth? That is not a rhetorical question. Why is a judge afraid of the truth? Are you trying to protect Jefferson County? Why would you do that? You can only be trying to protect the name of law enforcement and be trying to retain some confidence in law enforcement in general, which, you have been informed, the release of these documents will damage further. These documents must, in some way, reveal more about the failures of Jefferson County and law enforcement personnel that you are deciding will be harmful to the general public by further eroding confidence in our police and society. You honor, this is not possible. The reputation of these people is now beyond salvage. The corruption of this County is legendary. It is not possible for a new release to damage it any further. All that remains is that they take your reputation down the road of corruption and coverup with them. By controlling this information and destroying it, you will be involved as a particiapant in the destruction of incredibly important historical documents. You will become a co-conspirator with Dave Thomas and the other members of Jefferson County who lied to the families of murdered children. I will reiterate so that you will remember: They lied to the families of murdered children.

One last note: As you remember this court case in the years to come, you will see the absurdity of the positioning of the attorneys. On one side you have the attorneys for the National Archives, the families of the murdered children, the Attorney General of Colorado, and the shadows of the attorneys for our local newspapers who fought the fight to get the truth released. On the other side you have the attorneys for the parents of two mass murderers and the attorney for the Jefferson County Sheriff. That is the division. Allies for the truth and allies for cover-up. In addition you have many people who know the truth, who have seen the “basement tapes and other concealed documents, who care about the truth. You will not even listen to them. Remember that line-up of participants. Now realize that you were sitting, by the decisions you made, on the side of the killers parents and the corrupt Jefferson County Government. I hope that is your legacy.

I went to this court to see the final chapter of the Columbine Tragedy. I hoped to see some truth, some justice. What I heard and what I saw were different. It was a great discussion on law and court cases and what decision was made and when it was made.

Lots of legal decisions, and no wisdom.

Shame on you, Judge Babcock, for allowing this tragedy to end with corruption and a concealment of the truth. The murdered children, their parents, the public and my family deserved more. You failed all of us.

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