Tech families, victims frustrated by settlement delays

Tragedy at Tech

Key elements of the state's settlement over the Virginia Tech massacre continue to be dogged by delays that many families and victims say are frustrating.

The settlement eight months ago resolved 46 lawsuits alleging Tech officials delayed warning the campus after senior Seung-Hui Cho's first two of 32 murders on April 16, 2007.

The lawsuits, by 28 families of the deceased and 18 survivors, also alleged Tech overlooked several warning signs about the troubled student.

Some of the settlement delays include:

On the hardship fund, for instance, officials promised they'd determine awards in October, then November, then December and finally sometime during the first 10 days of this year, Pohle said.

Letters to families and victims disclosing the awards were dated in the last week of January, families said.

"The list goes on and on, and commitment dates are non-existent," Pohle said.

In contrast, deadlines the state placed on the families and victims were tight, he added. Families got two weeks to decide on accepting the settlement and a month to accept terms covering disbursement from a fund set up to receive donations for them.

Kaine's press secretary, Gordon Hickey, said the state isn't trying to delay. "Our main objective is to help them as much as possible," he said.

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Reimbursements for medical expenses were tied up for months because the agency first designated by the state to reimburse medical and mental-health expenses wasn't legally able to do so. The settlement did not specify a deadline for when reimbursements were to be made.

State officials later said they knew that but intended to fix it during this year's General Assembly before promising last November to find another way to make the payments.

"The collection notices keep piling up," said Suzanne Grimes, who forwarded a more-than-inch-thick stack of bills for her son Kevin Sterne's care to the governor's office late last year, after officials announced a new system for making the payments.

So far, she and her son have had no reimbursement, she said.

Letters announcing disbursements from a hardship fund set up under the settlement were mailed only in the last week of January, instead of during the first 10 days, as promised by the governor's office.

Two weeks ago, the governor's office advised families that checks were in the mail, apologizing because it had planned to send the funds by overnight service.

Some families and victims say they've received the funds set by the hardship fund's overseer, but others have not. The $1.9 million fund is to be distributed based on financial need caused by the deaths and injuries of April 16.

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The archive that Tech was required to set up, meanwhile, is not displaying several key documents.

Hincker, the Tech spokesman, confirmed this week that key notes from the Policy Group of top officials had been put in but for some reason were not visible to searchers. The Richmond Times-Dispatch first asked about the missing documents four weeks ago.

On the charitable trust to promote school safety, Hickey said the names should be announced this week. The governor's office had said the board would be named shortly after Jan. 1.

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