Investigation clears lawyers

Five attorneys were in secret meeting after Columbine

Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Five attorneys who attended a "private meeting" in April 1999 to discuss a draft search warrant for the home of Columbine killer Eric Harris have been cleared of allegations that they violated professional standards by failing to disclose the existence of the document.

An investigator in the Colorado Supreme Court's Office of Attorney Regulation was critical of Jefferson County sheriff's officials but concluded that the five lawyers who were at the meeting had not acted inappropriately.

"After a review of the evidence and interviews with various witnesses, we conclude there is not clear and convincing evidence of a violation of the disciplinary rules," John S. Gleason, a lawyer in the Office of Attorney Regulation, wrote in a letter sent to Randy and Judy Brown, who filed the complaints.

At issue was a secret meeting in the days after Columbine that was attended by numerous Jefferson County officials. In that meeting, officials talked about how to deal with the existence of a draft search warrant for Harris' home, written about a year before he and Dylan Klebold carried out the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

That draft warrant, written by Deputy Mike Guerra, was never shown to a judge or executed, and its existence was kept secret for nearly two years.

The Browns, who had alerted police in 1997 and 1998 that Harris had a violent Web site, alleged that the lawyers at the meeting had a professional responsibility to make the existence of the document known to the families of those who were killed and injured. The Browns alleged in their complaint that then-District Attorney Dave Thomas, then-Jefferson County Attorney Frank Hutfless, Assistant County Attorneys Bill Tuthill and Lily Oeffler and Assistant District Attorney Kathy Sasak violated the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct.

But Gleason concluded that the attorneys did not violate the rules of professional conduct and that holding a meeting to discuss the affidavit was "entirely appropriate."

"In summary," Gleason wrote, "although it is clear that the affidavit was of concern to high ranking Jefferson County employees, there is no clear and convincing evidence of any dishonesty or other rule violation by any respondent in connection in the timing of the production of the Guerra affidavit."

But while he cleared the attorneys, Gleason was critical of various Jefferson County sheriff's officials, calling their conduct "disconcerting."

"Various members of the department have been untruthful to the press about such things as meetings with the Browns and the production of the Guerra affidavit," he wrote.

vaughank@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5019