Discovery of Cho’s records brings more questions

It was the prospect of talking to a lawyer -- not the efforts of Virginia police officers investigating the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history -- that apparently shook loose missing records about Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho from the former university employee who held them.

The former director of Tech's counseling center found the mental-health records, missing for more than three years, last week in his home, according to a memo yesterday from Virginia Tech's legal counsel, Mary Beth Nash.

The records are supposed to have information about mental-health treatment that Tech provided Cho about 16 months before he killed 32 students and professors on April 16, 2007.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday promised that the records will be made public as quickly as possible. He said the state will ask Cho's family to release the records. If the family declines, Kaine said, the state could take other steps.

Although state police officers received the records Tuesday morning, the counseling center's former director, Robert Miller, turned them over to university officials last Thursday.

Miller is one of several Tech and state officials named in lawsuits filed by families of two students Cho killed. Miller apparently found the records while preparing to be interviewed by the families' lawyers, one of the families' attorneys, Robert Hall of Reston, said yesterday.

Miller, who now teaches at the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, did not reply to an e-mail or calls to his office and cell phone yesterday. His lawyer did not return a phone call.

Hall said he has not seen the records.

When asked why police officers had not been able to find a critical piece of evidence, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said: "We're still investigating the circumstances around their disappearance."

She said she couldn't comment on why police were unable to get the records, saying the matter is under investigation as a possible criminal offense, but she added that state police are confident that their investigation showed no lack of competence or efficiency.

Miller took the records from the counseling center about a year before the massacre, said Nash, the Tech general counsel. Miller had records of several other students in his home. State regulations require that licensed counselors keep records for five years and ensure that they are secure.

Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said Cho's records appeared to be complete.

But he said that because the records are confidential, he could not say whether they include information about whether the center knew a judge had ordered Cho to get mental-health care there in December 2005; whether they have information about how that order was followed up; or about other interactions Cho or his teachers had with the center about his disturbing behavior in the years before the massacre.

Soon after the massacre, when police discovered that the file was missing, Owczarski said Tech officials asked Miller whether he knew anything about the files. Miller told them he had no idea about their location, Owczarski said.

Kaine said the records would be entered into the archives for public comment and could be used to revise or correct any errors in the original report.

The governor said he wants to know why police were unable to find the records.

"I don't know that that is an aspect of an investigation, but that is a question that interests me," Kaine said.

Some parents of students Cho killed said the missing records make them wonder whether Tech and the state had been trying to dodge responsibility for their actions before the massacre.

"I am flabbergasted it has taken this long for these records to be uncovered. The fact that it only happened in response to discovery for pending litigation makes me sick to my stomach," said Peter Read, whose daughter, Mary, was killed April 16, 2007.

"This is the most vivid demonstration to date of what I have contended from the outset -- that leadership determines the climate and culture of an institution, and that the current leadership of the university obviously encouraged a climate and culture of fear, secrecy, and intimidation among the very employees who were most responsible for the safety and well-being of our children and their teachers."

Michael Pohle, whose son, Michael, died that day, said the belated discovery of the records calls into question much of the state investigation. He said the fact that they didn't surface for so long raises questions about how complete the records are, as well as the motivations of Tech officials after the massacre.

"It not only adds to the theory of a coverup but also leads to a question as to who VT or other state institutions might be covering for," said Joseph Samaha, whose daughter, Reema, also was killed that day.

Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or .

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or .