RELATED:
• Kaine statement on Cho records
Missing mental health records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho have been discovered in the home of the university clinic’s former director, a memo from Tech’s legal counsel says.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine disclosed at a news conference today that the records were found in connection with preparations for a civil lawsuit filed earlier this year by families of two of the 32 people Cho killed before turning the gun on himself April 16, 2007.
The memo by Kaine’s chief legal counsel to the victims’ family members says the former director of the university counseling center, Robert H. Miller, had Cho’s records and those of several other Virginia Tech students at his home.
Miller left his position at the counseling center more than a year before the massacre. Reached at his office by the Associated Press, Miller declined to comment.
Kaine said it is his intention to release the records publicly pending authorization from the estate of Cho.
Cho was supposed to be treated at the counseling center, under a court order, 16 months before the shootings.
Victims and relatives of the dead have sought more information on what the center’s staff did at that time, and other interactions it may have had with Cho. The student had contacted the counseling center twice before then, as well, investigators have previously reported.
Kaine said he had not seen the files and could not tell if they were complete. He said they were described to him as Cho’s file.
State law requires that such records be kept at counseling and treatment centers, and Kaine said Virginia State Police would investigate the circumstances of their removal. The governor said he had no further details on how the records were found or why they had been kept by Miller.
Kaine said he felt it is important to ask why police had been unable to find the records.
Miller is one of several defendents named in lawsuits filed by families of two students whom Cho killed.
The lawsuits allege, among other things, that Tech, several employees and officials of the local mental health agency wre negligent in treating Cho's mental illness and in monitoring him.
The families' lawyer, Robert Hall of Reston, said he had not seen the records yet. Hall said the records surfaced as Miller and his lawyers were preparing to be interviewed about the counseling center's treatement of Cho.
Family members of Tech victims and survivors were notified that there would be a development in the case late last night, but were not given specifics, according to a family member who spoke with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“I am concerned this is another example of misleading information to the families that seek the truth,” said Suzanne Grimes, whose son Kevin Sterne was injured in the shootings
“Obviously this was not a thorough investigation, not every possible person that had contact with these records was questioned,” she said, adding that she was upset by “the continual deception” by Tech leadership.
“I am furious the worst shooting in America’s history occurred but the facts and true accounts of what happened continues to be covered up,” she said.
Tech families have pushed for a series of revisions and corrections to the original state report on the shooting, as information uncovered during the course of legal action uncovered discrepancies in the timetable of the shooting and actions of officials involved that day.
Much has been uncovered about Cho, but it is believed the medical records will shed additional light on his mental state and any physical conditions in the time leading up to the shootings.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement