I was stoned and I missed it.
Posted on 05/09/2006 6:08:36 PM PDT by wjersey
PROVIDENCE, R.I.
After listening to two days of grief-stricken testimony, the band manager who started a Rhode Island nightclub fire that killed 100 people broke down for the first time Tuesday as the father of the youngest victim spoke of forgiveness.
David Kane, standing just a few feet from band manager Daniel Biechele, spoke of his 18-year-old son, Nicholas O'Neill _ "our gentle, loving, funny, sincere, spiritual son." Kane said his son would have wanted the family to accept Biechele's apology for setting off the pyrotechnics that started the blaze.
"That's the kind of boy Nicky is," Kane said.
Biechele wept openly, his body heaving with sobs.
The father's comments came near the end of two days of testimony from relatives of the people killed in the blaze at The Station nightclub in West Warwick.
The day's testimony was painful even to some of those in the courtroom who are used to hearing difficult things.
As one speaker stood at the podium, Biechele's lawyer, Peter DiBiase, cupped his face in his hands and wept. At another point, the judge's clerk became so overwhelmed that she could not announce the name of the next speaker and the judge had to do it for her.
Biechele, 29, was the tour manager for the heavy metal band Great White. He has pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter and is set to find out his sentence on Wednesday. He could get up to 10 years in prison.
His lawyers have asked Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. to sentence him to community service.
It would be easy to say this was an accident and give him the community service, but I don't know what they found in terms of how negligent he was.
He's lucky to be alive.
This was a complete tragedy...the very definition of it.
Werent the exit doors also chained shut. If this is true, the clubs managers/owners are mostly to blame
It's getting to the point where any accident is a crime.
I dont see how the tour manager is to blame anymore then the band or club owner. The band probably wanted the fireworks and stuff, and the club owner had doors locked the should have been open. The guy deserves a punishment but not 10 years.
To this day, I don't understand how the fire inspectors didn't get arrested. The place was a defintion tinder box and yet they failed to shut it down.
You might be right. I just don't remember all the details on that.
This was a distinct case of fire code violations as well as fire exit blockages. Flamable sound proofing was used, fire works indoors without permits or any safety precautions were involved.
These culprits deserve all they get.
I was stoned and I missed it.
Then we would be on here screaming about government regulations shutting down a small business. Accidents happen, sad, but it happens.
Nah...this place of business was pure textbook. If you can't shut down this place then you might as well throw out the whole idea of fire inspections.
This was a tragedy, and negligent, but I can't find the need to jail the band manager for what was basically a moronic accident. I only seek to jail people for malice. There was no malicious intent here and he's not likely to reoffend.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/LegalIssues/lm7.cfm
This poor contruction foreman was sent to prison when a backhoe hit a pipeline. He wasn't even present, and the backhoe operator took it upon himself to move to a different spot and remove some rocks.
I've been to clubs like that. 1,000 or so people packed like sardines in a glorified shack. I'm always mindful of where the nearest exit is in any building I'm in, but in the club we are talking about the doors were apparently locked. In all of the clubs I've been in all of the doors are open, but there's security to make sure people can't get in for free(unless you know them =).
That dude looks just like Cindy Shehag!
If you lived in RI, you'd understand....
Can you say: "political corruption"?
Get in there, do a good show,mabye get laid , and cash the check.
Those guys wouldn't need fireworks to get the crowd riled up.
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