Band manager gets 4 years in fatal club fire

[Stinky The Clown]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10704044/

The judge's statement was extraordinarily thoughtful and compelling.

This was a tragedy on all counts.

[Howardx]

1. its a travesty

that guy just worked for great white, im betting the pyro wasnt his idea in the first place it was great whites aging singer trying to relive the "glory days" if there were any.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. A travesty?

100 people died. He could have gotten 30 years. He is as far from a bad man as can seen on trial for anythikng more serious than a traffic ticket.

I think the judge struck an excellent balance with this sentence.

[wicket]

4. Agreed

A sad situation all around :cry:

[Howardx]

8. i will elaborate

i think its a travesty that great white themselves do not seem to be in any sort of trouble, this guy was just an employee of theirs doing what they asked him to do.

[wicket]

11. There are more trials coming

n/t

[Tesha]

26. This guy had the decency to plead "guilty"

He knew/knows what he did was wrong and was willing to face
(all) the consequences of his actions.

The others seem to be refusing to accept that concept.

Tesha

[rocktivity]

32. The guy had a little help in pleading guilty

via a video of him lighting the pyro!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Stinky The Clown]

13. I've not been following this all that closely ..... but .....

.... it seems that other trials (or maybe just charges, I'm not sure) are in the early stages.

I think this young man was simply the first to enter a plea ... and he chose to accpt responsibility. I am certain, having listened to the judge, that helped him get such a seemingly light sentence.

[Zodiak]

18. One of them died

that sounds like trouble to me

[rodeodance]

20. i wonder what purpose it serves to have him do jail time. We are a punat-

itive society. i just do not agree--he will suffer the rest of his life for this deed. Community service if we must punish him.

[rocktivity]

33. Great White are only civilly liable

and that's only because their band manager acted on their behalf when he lit the pyro. But as band manager, it was his responsiblity to find what the club's policy regarding pyro was. And the club's owners are criminally liable because it was their responsiblity to ensure the pyro policy was enforced.

:headbang:
rocknation

[ProudDad]

31. I'd love to hear what you'd say

if you spent some time in one of those fucking houses of pain and abuse.

It does NOT A FUCKING bit of good for anyone except the most blood thirsty to do this to the guy.

Judges and DA's are sick fucks in my opinion. Of course, I've been FUCKED by them myself so maybe I'm a little biased, eh? :mad: :mad:

[JVS]

29. Great White had "glory days" once?

I had no idea!

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Pyrotechnics in an overcrowded old building with low ceilings -

Wasn't anybody thinking that night?

Good grief.

[wicket]

5. No sprinkler system either

So sad :cry:

[blueknight]

6. this guy is a band manager

not a fire inspector! the owners should be responsible! they should have smashed the idea, its their club!

[Stinky The Clown]

7. I agree

They've yet to come to trial.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Nobody, including the guy who lit it, had sense enough to say "No"

"it's too risky under these conditions".

[wicket]

10. No where did I say he was a fire inspector

The poster asked if anyone was thinking that night, and no, no one was.

[Duncan]

12. That sucks.

The guy is guilty only of being an idiot. There was no malice. He wanted to entertain, not kill.
He didn't know the stage was surrounded by extemely flammable foam.
He should not go to prison, he should have gotten community service in a burn unit.
I don't care what the judges statement is, the sentence is wrong.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. I thought the judge did the right thing ......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2616393

[Howardx]

15. im not arguing that at all husb2sparkly

i just feel the real blame lies with great white for trying to have a stadium show in a tiny club.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. I don't know the story well enough to have a hard opinion .....

... but I absolutely agree that others are culpable .... and the band is surely one possibility.

[jayfish]

16. Good Site Regarding The Fire.

http://hammernews.com/nightclub.htm

Jay

[artfan]

19. I have been following this closely

I live just a few minutes away and RI is a small state. I see fire survivors when I go shopping and drive past the site of the fire often. I feel the judge did the best he could the man was stupid but there is pleanty of blame to go around. I put most of the blame at the feet of the club owners particularly the one who managed the club (Michael);I think the other brother(Jeffery) was mostly a silent partner. The sas reality is the what if game will not change things and the families grief is like a scab that keeps being picked at until this is settled it will not heal.

The worst part is this will happen again. If not here then somewhere else. clubs are always overcrowded and packed, people do stupid things, and no one ever thinks it will hapen to them.

[flamingyouth]

21. I agree with you completely.

[cboy4]

22. I could be wrong but I thought the reason the sound proofing foam

caught fire was because the owners tried to save money purchasing and installing the inexpensive, flammable foam. :shrug:

I could have sworn that was reported by some news agency or publication.

Anyone else remember???

[LostinVA]

23. You're right -- it wasn't up to code/the proper material

If it had been, the fire wouldn't have happened. They are up on 200 mans laugher charges, and go on trial this summer. I hope they never, ever see the light of day. They KNEW it wasn't up to code, and let the pyrotechnics go ahead anyway.

I can't help feeling sorry for this guy... he is truly devastated by this, and it wasn't his fault. You can say he was an accessory to the blame... four years and a lifetime of misery is his sentence.

[cboy4]

24. I thought so....thanks for the update

[LostinVA]

25. No worries -- I've kept up with the story n/t

[jmowreader]

27. Exactly

There are lots of grades of synthetic foam. The kind the Derdarians bought was intended for padding fragile items during shipment. It is exquisitely flammable, and the bag it comes in clearly says "do not use this product in exposed applications." (It's also going away--no one wants it in their warehouses because several have burned to the ground thanks to this foam, so now everyone's going to the Sealed Air bags. I get a lot of freight and none of it is padded in foam.) The foam you want is called "melamine foam." It is expensive but you can hold a propane torch to it and not set it on fire.

Irony: Jeff Derdarian is a television news personality in New England, or at least he was until his bar burned down. He did an investigative piece on PUR foam in which he termed it "solid gasoline." After this aired, he soundproofed his own bar with the same foam he slammed in his report.

Lots and lots of fire-safety violations in that building--exit doors painted black, flammable foam soundproofing, asphalt used to paint the ceiling tiles black...I think there were some electrical problems in there too...

[justice1]

28. I saw Great White perform in a small club.

The club didn't allow pyrotechnics even prior to the accident, and there was always a fire marshall present during concerts.

It seems Rhode Island was rather lax, and fire inspectors should also be held accountable.

Another thing I don't understand is why the neighbor that worked for the foam company, would have suggested and ordered such a flammable product.

[ProudDad]

30. This is typical U.S. bullshit

The fuckin' criminally-unjust system exacts revenge on someone who was just as damaged as anyone else. 4 years for stupidity. And prison time is USELESS, USELESS, USELESS in this instance. They send this guy into the joint to get raped, beaten and abused. Boy, that's smart... They'll turn him into an Aryan in no time.

There's no justice in this decision. It's just typical Amerikan scapegoating.

This country is sick, sick, sick. This right-wing experiment in terror and abuse of the poor bastards who get "caught" makes it sicker.

This case is unusual though in that the injustice is happening to a white guy. It's disproportionately black and brown people who're "caught" since they're to ones targeted by the phony war on drugs and street crime and usually can't afford adequate legal representation.

He probably would have gotten 25 to Life if he'd been black.

Sometimes I hate this fucking country!!!


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