Va. Tech gunman's mental records found in home

[samanthajane13]

By BOB LEWIS and SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writers Bob Lewis And Sue Lindsey, Associated Press Writers – 22 mins ago

RICHMOND, Va. – Mental health records for Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho that were missing for more than two years have been discovered in the home of the university clinic's former director, according to a state memo sent to victims' family members.

Cho killed 32 people on April 16, 2007, then committed suicide as police closed in. His mental health treatment has been a major issue in the vast investigation of the shootings, yet the records' location had eluded authorities until they were uncovered by attorneys for some families of Cho's victims.

A memo from Gov. Tim Kaine's chief legal counsel to victims' family members says Cho's records and those of several other Virginia Tech students were found last week in the home of Dr. Robert C. Miller. The memo was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The memo said Cho's records were removed from the Cook Counseling Center on the Virginia Tech campus more than a year before the shootings, when Miller transferred from his position at the clinic. Records for several other students were also at his home, the memo said.

"I appreciate your call, but I'm not making comment at this time," Miller said when reached at a number for his private practice.

Kaine said a Virginia State Police criminal investigation was under way into how the records disappeared from the center where Cho was ordered to undergo counseling. Removing records from the center is illegal, he said.

Kaine said he was dismayed that it took two years before they were found by the attorneys.

"That is part of the investigation that I am very interested in and, of course, I'm very concerned about that," Kaine said.

The medical records are protected under state privacy laws. The state planned to release the records publicly as soon as possible, either by consent from Cho's estate or through a subpoena.

The discovery calls into question the thoroughness of the criminal probe two years ago and the findings of a commission Kaine appointed to review the catastrophe, one victim's relative said.

"Deception comes to my mind in my first response," said Suzanne Grimes, whose son Kevin Sterne was injured in the shootings.

"To say it doesn't make sense is an injustice," she said. "It gives me the impression: 'What else are they hiding?'"

She praised Kaine's willingness to investigate the disappearance of the records and have them released.

"Until we get all the answers to what happened on that day and days prior, there's no sense of closure," Grimes said.

Andrew Goddard, whose son, Colin, survived four gunshots, welcomed the new information.

"We're not looking to hang people. We're looking for more of the truth about what happened," he said.

While a large part of the shooting investigation focused on how university officials and law enforcement responded following the first reports of deaths in a Virginia Tech dormitory, family members of victims have also inquired how the troubled Cho slipped through the cracks at university counseling.

In April, on the second anniversary of the shootings, families of two slain students sued the state, the school and its counseling center, several top university officials and a local mental health agency, claiming gross negligence in the chain of events that allowed Cho to commit his killing spree.

The lawsuits also claim the local health center where Cho had gone to say he felt suicidal did not adequately treat or monitor him.

The discovery shakes up that lawsuit, an attorney for the two families said.

"Why would he (Miller) take any student mental health records to his home at any time, and why that student?" Robert T. Hall said.

"It certainly is a question of whether there is more to the Seung-Hui Cho mental health history than we've been told," Hall said in a telephone interview from vacation in Vermont.

Goddard, who was appointed last year to the state board of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, said he wasn't sure how helpful the records would be.

But he said if they showed Cho was "anything other than this mildly upset student," that needed to come out.

___

Associated Press Writer Dena Potter in Richmond contributed to this report. Lindsey reported from Roanoke.

(This version CORRECTS the middle initial for the former clinic director to C., not H.)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090722/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shooting

[samanthajane13]

Lawyer: Va. Tech gunman files taken inadvertently
By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer Bob Lewis, Associated Press Writer – 36 mins ago

RICHMOND, Va. – The former counseling center director at Virginia Tech inadvertently took home mental health records for the student gunman when he left his job a year before the massacre, the director's attorney said Thursday.

In a statement given to The Associated Press, attorney Ed McNelis said Dr. Robert Miller accidentally placed Seung-Hui Cho's records in a box he packed with his personal documents when he was leaving his job at the center in February 2006.

He said Miller opened the box for the first time last week while searching for any material that could be relevant to a lawsuit filed by families for two of the slain victims in the nation's worst mass shooting, on April 16, 2007.

The attorney said Miller was surprised to find Cho's records that evening and he returned them to the center the next morning. The file has not yet been released to the public.

"Dr. Miller deeply regrets that his inadvertence has caused so much distress for the families of the victims as well as his former colleagues at Virginia Tech," McNelis said. "Dr. Miller's candor and diligence in returning these records to the Cook Counseling Center dispels any inference of ill intent."

Wednesday's news that the records had been found at Miller's home prompted questions from victims' families and attorneys on why they were discovered there after eluding authorities, a state commission and an internal university search.

Virginia State Police are investigating whether a crime was committed when the records were removed from the center. If criminal charges are filed, they would be the first in the mass murders.

Gov. Tim Kaine said the investigation would determine if Miller's assertion was accurate.

"I think the other critical piece is, how could he remove those records? These are confidential records that, by my understanding, can not be legally removed, certainly not by anybody who's a former employee," Kaine said.

State officials have said they would release Cho's records publicly as soon as possible, either with consent from his estate or through a subpoena.

Robert T. Hall, attorney for the two families who have filed suit over the slayings, said he didn't expect the file to produce much new information.

Cho, who was a senior when he killed two people in a dormitory and 30 more in a classroom building before committing suicide, had only three encounters with the counseling center over his four years at the Blacksburg school. Officials have said he was triaged twice over the phone and had one court-ordered counseling session in person.

State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the file contains only eight to 10 pages.

"We're not talking volumes or anything," she said. "It's more like a stack of papers."

Injured victims and the families of those killed waited for details from the file and a clear reason for the lapse in finding it.

"I'm glad that it wasn't with malicious intent and that he did return it when he realized the grave error that he made," said Colin Goddard, who was shot four times by Cho but survived. "I don't know how professional it is, but the guy's human."

Goddard said he was anxious to see what the files contain.

"I would imagine that there would be some things we would have liked to have known two years ago," he said.

But Suzanne Grimes, whose son Kevin Sterne was wounded, said she didn't believe Miller's story. She also questioned why it took the university six days to turn the records over to police after Miller's attorney gave them to the school.

"I think criminal charges should be placed toward this doctor and toward Virginia Tech for holding them," she said. "When someone shows up with something as huge as this, you don't just say, 'We'll get to that next week.'"

Most families of those killed and injured agreed last year not to sue in exchange for an $11 million state settlement. Their attorney, Peter Grenier, said the records discovery would not affect the agreement because his case focused on the university's response to the shootings.

The lawsuits on behalf of slain students Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson are seeking damages of $10 million, but their parents have said they decided to sue in order to learn more details about the shootings.

Even after the records become public, Kaine said it wouldn't ease all the pain the families feel.

"I don't think all of the questions about this will ever go away," he said. "The motivations for this young man (Cho) will cause confusion and sadness forever, and there's never going to be an answer to this that will just wind it up and finish it because it's so inexplicable."

___

Associated Press Writers Sue Lindsey in Roanoke and Dena Potter in Richmond contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090723/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shooting

[samanthajane13]

Lawyer: Va. Tech gunman files taken inadvertently
By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer Bob Lewis, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jul 23, 8:22 pm ET

RICHMOND, Va. – The former head of a Virginia Tech counseling center accidentally packed mental health files of student gunman Seung-Hui Cho along with personal documents when he left his job more than a year before Cho killed 32 people on campus, a lawyer said Thursday.

In a statement to The Associated Press, attorney Ed McNelis said his client, Dr. Robert Miller, placed Cho's records in a box in February 2006. He said Miller opened it for the first time last week while searching for material that could be relevant to a lawsuit filed by families for two of the slain students in the nation's worst mass shooting.

McNelis said Miller was surprised to find Cho's records and he returned them to the center the next morning. The file has not yet been released to the public.

"Dr. Miller deeply regrets that his inadvertence has caused so much distress for the families of the victims as well as his former colleagues at Virginia Tech," McNelis said. "Dr. Miller's candor and diligence in returning these records to the Cook Counseling Center dispels any inference of ill intent."

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the file contains about eight to 10 pages.

"We're not talking volumes or anything," she said. "It's more like a stack of papers."

Wednesday's news that the records had been found at Miller's home prompted questions from victims' families and attorneys on why they were discovered there after eluding authorities for more than two years since the massacre, a state commission and an internal university search.

Suzanne Grimes, whose son Kevin Sterne was wounded, said she didn't believe Miller's story. She also questioned why it took the university six days to turn the records over to police after Miller's attorney gave them to the school.

"I think criminal charges should be placed toward this doctor and toward Virginia Tech for holding them," she said. "When someone shows up with something as huge as this, you don't just say, 'We'll get to that next week.'"

State Police are investigating whether a crime was committed when the records were removed. If criminal charges are filed, they would be the first in the mass murders that happened on April 16, 2007.

Gov. Tim Kaine said the investigation would determine if Miller's assertion was accurate.

"I think the other critical piece is, how could he remove those records? These are confidential records that, by my understanding, cannot be legally removed, certainly not by anybody who's a former employee," Kaine said.

State officials have said they would release Cho's records publicly as soon as possible, either with consent from his estate or through a subpoena.

Robert T. Hall, attorney for the two suing families, said he didn't expect the file to produce much new information. Nonetheless, he wondered why Miller even had them since he had never seen Cho as a patient.

"I'm a professional skeptic," Hall said in a telephone interview. "Why was it on his desk?"

Cho was a senior when he killed two people in a dormitory and 30 more in a classroom building before committing suicide. He had only three encounters with the counseling center over his four years at the Blacksburg school. Officials have said he was triaged twice over the phone and had one court-ordered counseling session in person.

Wounded victims and the families of the slain waited for details from the file and a clear reason for the lapse in finding it.

"I'm glad that it wasn't with malicious intent and that he did return it when he realized the grave error that he made," said Colin Goddard, who was shot four times by Cho but survived. "I don't know how professional it is, but the guy's human."

Goddard said he was anxious to see what the files contain.

"I would imagine that there would be some things we would have liked to have known two years ago," he said.

Most families of those killed and injured agreed last year not to sue in exchange for an $11 million state settlement. Their attorney, Peter Grenier, said the records discovery would not affect the agreement because his case focused on the university's response to the shootings.

The lawsuits on behalf of slain students Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson are seeking damages of $10 million, but their parents have said they decided to sue in order to learn more details about the shootings.

Even after the records become public, Kaine said it wouldn't ease all the pain the families feel.

"I don't think all of the questions about this will ever go away," he said. "The motivations for this young man (Cho) will cause confusion and sadness forever, and there's never going to be an answer to this that will just wind it up and finish it because it's so inexplicable."

___

Associated Press Writers Sue Lindsey in Roanoke and Dena Potter and Hank Kurz Jr. in Richmond contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090724/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shooting

[samanthajane13]

New Tech gunman records fail to predict bloodshed
By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer Sue Lindsey, Associated Press Writer – 16 mins ago

ROANOKE, Va. – Recently discovered mental health records released on Wednesday contain no obvious indications that the Virginia Tech gunman was a year and a half away from committing the worst mass shootings in modern U.S. history.

The records contain previously unseen handwritten notes from the counselors who talked to Seung-Hui Cho in 2005, and in one report Cho denied having any suicidal or homicidal thoughts. On April 16, 2007, Cho killed 32 students and faculty members on the Blacksburg, Va., campus and took his own life.

The counselors' notes indicate they were concerned for the troubled student, but the records don't contain any evidence that they saw serious warning signs to believe Cho would commit violence.

The missing files were released almost five weeks after they were discovered at the home of the former director of the university's counseling center.

University officials have said Cho talked to two different therapists during 45-minute telephone triage sessions in the fall, then made one court-ordered 45-minute in-person visit that December.

Cho denied the homicidal thoughts in the telephone sessions and in the in-person meeting with counselor Sherry Lynch Conrad on Dec. 14, 2005. Cho met with Conrad at Cook Counseling Center after being detained in a mental hospital overnight because he had expressed thoughts of suicide.

"He denies suicidal and/or homicidal thoughts. Said the comment he made was a joke. Says he has no reason to harm self and would never do it," Conrad wrote.

That was Cho's last contact with the counseling center. The counselor wrote that she gave him emergency contact numbers and encouraged him to return the next semester in January, but he didn't make an appointment.

Edward J. McNelis, an attorney for Conrad and the counselors who spoke with Cho by phone, said he had advised them not to comment because they are named in civil lawsuits filed by two of the victims' families.

A telephone message left for Conrad was not immediately returned.

The files first turned up July 16, when former Cook Counseling Center director Robert C. Miller found them in his home while preparing for those civil suits, which name him as a defendant.

Miller said in a court filing that the Cho records were in a manila folder along with several others, and he packed it up with his personal documents in late February or early March 2006 when he transferred from the center to another position at the university.

The files were released by Virginia Tech following the approval of Cho's family. It was their decision whether to release them because of privacy laws.

"My mother, father and I all agree that it is the correct thing to do to release the newly discovered medical records of my brother," Cho's sister, Sun Cho, said in a letter authorizing the release.

University spokesman Mark Owczarski said with the release of the records the school was seeking to provide the victims' families "with as much information as is known about Cho's interactions with the mental health system."

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in a statement he was pleased that the Cho family wanted the records released and that his administration remained committed to openness about events surrounding the mass shootings.

"We will never fully comprehend what led Seung-Hui Cho to carry out his assault on his fellow students and instructors," Kaine said. "His actions were by nature inexplicable, and I don't expect the questions surrounding the tragedy will ever really end."

Robert Hall, attorney for the families who have sued, noted that the file contained no mention of discussions former English Department Chairwoman Lucinda Roy had with Miller about Cho. She consulted the counseling center director when she was trying to tutor Cho that fall after his disturbing writings and bizarre behavior got him kicked out of class.

"It's like there are parallel universes," he said, one in which the faculty is concerned and tries to get help for a seriously disturbed student and another in which the school therapists appeared to know little about Cho's troubles.

Relatives of victims said the files showed that Cho slipped through the cracks despite red flags.

"They definitely weren't paying attention, and that's what led to April 16th," said Suzanne Grimes, whose son Kevin was wounded but survived.

"It just sounded like he was going through a McDonald's," said Michael Pohle, whose son Michael Pohle Jr. was killed. "It just looked like he was passed through from one person to another person and there was no collaboration going on."

Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily Haas was injured, said she was more concerned about the circumstances under which the records were found more than two years after the shootings.

"I'm just suspicious of the manner in which information has been dribbled out," she said.

Roger O'Dell, whose son Derek O'Dell was injured, said he hoped the records could be helpful in altering treatment of troubled individuals.

"There are lessons to be learned," he said.

___

Associated Press Writer Steve Szkotak in Richmond contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090819/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shooting

[samanthajane13]

Va. Tech report details new fumbles in shooting
By ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON, Associated Press Writer Zinie Chen Sampson, Associated Press Writer – 26 mins ago

RICHMOND, Va. – Some Virginia Tech officials warned their own families and the president's office was locked down well before a campus-wide alert was issued in the 2007 slayings of 32 people, according to a revised state report that details new fumbles in the response to the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

One student survived several hours after being shot without anyone notifying her family until she had died, said the updated report, released Friday.

At least two officials with a crisis response team called their family members after the first shootings at a dorm and about 90 minutes before the all-campus alert was issued at 9:26 a.m. The president's office was locked down at 8:52 a.m. and two academic buildings were also shut down before the general alert.

The revisions, made partly in response to requests from victims' families, also added details about troubling behavior by Seung-Hui Cho (sung-wee joh) and includes information from his mental-health records. Cho killed 32 people and injured several others before killing himself on April 16, 2007, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said the findings that some school officials called their own family members about the initial shootings in a dorm before an all-campus warning was issued were "inexcusable."

"There is almost never a reason not to provide immediate notification," Kaine told the Associated Press Friday. "If university officials thought it was important enough to notify their own families, they should have let everyone know."

The revised report is likely to bring new scrutiny for university President Charles Steger, who has resisted calls from family members of some victims to resign over the response to the massacre.

"He's got to live with himself," said Dennis Bluhm, who lost his son Brian and said Friday he no longer cares if Steger resigns. "If he's got any heart at all, and I'm not sure he does, he's got a long life to live with this on his brain."

While new details were added and other portions were corrected or clarified, the original report's conclusions and recommendations were not revised. The first document was critical of communications failures, privacy laws and other factors, and issued suggestions on improving campus emergency procedures and notification systems, mental health regulations, and gun purchase reporting requirements.

Kaine agreed to the revision to correct factual errors and reflect new information that emerged after the panel he appointed to investigate the slayings completed its first document in August 2007. Victims' parents had pressed for corrections, and wanted university officials and others to be held more accountable for their roles.

Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said in a statement Friday that "none of the new information merited changes to any of the recommendations in the original report."

The amended report found that Virginia Tech had two different emergency-alert policies in effect when the shootings took place, and that led to a delay in issuing a university-wide alert until nearly two hours after Cho killed his first two victims in a dormitory.

Kaine said he is considering whether legislation requiring immediate notification procedures might be submitted to the General Assembly before he leaves office Jan. 16.

Emily Hilscher, one of the two dorm victims, survived for three hours after she was shot, according to the amended report. But no Virginia Tech officials, police or hospital representatives notified her parents about her injuries or whereabouts until after she died.

The report also adds more information, including Cho's records from the Cook Counseling Center, which were made public earlier this year. It also concludes that university officials and police failed to look into signs about Cho's mental state, including "a long list of frightening writings and aberrant behaviors."

___

On the Net:

Report of the Virginia Tech Review Panel: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TempContent/techPanelReport-addendum.cfm

___

Associated Press writers Bob Lewis, in Richmond, Va., and Tom Breen, in Charleston, W.Va., contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091204/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shootings

[samanthajane13]

Va. Tech report: Staff warned their families first
By TOM BREEN and ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON, Associated Press Writers Tom Breen And Zinie Chen Sampson, Associated Press Writers – 30 mins ago

BLACKSBURG, Va. – At least two Virginia Tech administrators told family members about a double shooting in a dorm — the prelude to the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history — well before the rest of the campus was notified a gunman was on the loose.

Those details were revealed in a revised state report released Friday and prompted bitter reactions from some victims' relatives who have been demanding the resignation of President Charles Steger ever since the 2007 massacre that left 33 people dead.

"He's got to live with himself," said Dennis Bluhm, who lost his son. "If he's got any heart at all, and I'm not sure he does, he's got a long life to live with this on his brain."

The report adds to the long list of apparent missteps by university officials before, during and after the 2007 rampage by Seung-Hui Cho. The mentally ill student shot two students to death in the dorm, then three hours later chained the doors of a classroom building and killed 30 more people before committing suicide.

The two administrators notified their families about the dorm shootings around 8:05 a.m. — an hour and 20 minutes before a campus-wide e-mail warning was sent to staff members, faculty and students. The massacre in the classroom building began at 9:40 a.m.

One of the administrators who notified a family member was Steger's chief of staff, Kim O'Rourke, said Phil Schaenman, the president of TriData, the outside firm that put together the report. She often called her son, a Tech student, to make sure he went to class. She told him about the dorm shootings but still told him to go to class, which he did.

"I did tell him what had been happening, and I told him to go to class," O'Rourke told The Washington Post. "He was in class at the time of the shooting in Norris Hall."

"It's been taken that their families were given advance warning," Schaenman said. "But in her case, she said it was safe to come to school."

The other administrator, then-assistant vice president of administration Lisa Wilkes, was dropping off her children at her mother's house when she got a phone call about the dorm shootings and telling her to come into work. She then told her mother about the shootings.

The two administrators' actions clearly "do not comprise a concerted effort by University staff to notify their own families of danger in advance of notifying the campus community," school spokesman Mark Owczarski said in a statement.

Gov. Tim Kaine said if there was an effort by the school's administration to notify family members before anyone else, it would be "inexcusable."

"There is almost never a reason not to provide immediate notification," Kaine told the Associated Press. "If university officials thought it was important enough to notify their own families, they should have let everyone know."

Later, Kaine spokeswoman Lynda Tran said his office had spoken with Tech and TriData officials about the report's findings and it "does not sound like there was wrongdoing" by the two administrators.

Steger's office said Friday he was unavailable for comment and referred questions to the university spokesman, Owczarski. Calls by The Associated Press to multiple phone listings for O'Rourke and Wilkes rang unanswered Friday.

On campus Friday, Student Government Association president Brandon Carroll said he does not think the revised report damages the administration.

"Hindsight is 20/20," he said. "It really upsets me that they're trying to bring back something bad that really hurt our community."

The updated report includes additions and corrections requested by family members along with new information, including details from Cho's mental health records. Those records had been missing from the school counseling center even before the massacre, but the center's former director found them in his home in July.

In other new findings in the report:

• It took 17 minutes for the chief of the Virginia Tech Police Department to get through to the executive vice president's office after he learned of the dorm shooting.

• Virginia Tech's government affairs director ordered Steger's office locked around 8:52 a.m. Two classroom buildings were also locked down well before the notification went out. But Owczarski said the office was never locked.

• One student killed in the dorm, Emily Hilscher, survived several hours after being shot, but no one bothered to notify her family until she had died. A call to her parents Friday wasn't immediately returned.

• An administrator who was a member of a policy group dealing with the shooting mailed a colleague in Richmond around 8:45 a.m. that a gunman was on the loose, but warned the colleague to make sure that information didn't get out because it was not yet "releasable."

• Campus trash collection was canceled 21 minutes before students and teachers were warned.

• Virginia Tech had two different emergency-alert policies in effect at the time, and that led to the delay in issuing the university-wide alert.

The original report criticized the university's failure to act on warning signs from Cho that included violent, twisted writings and sullen, hostile behavior. It also criticized the communications failures and other problems that allowed nearly two hours to elapse between the first gunshots and the campus-wide notification.

The updated report did not revise the original report's conclusions and recommendations.

___

On the Net:

Report of the Virginia Tech Review Panel: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TempContent/techPanelReport-addendum.cfm

___

Sampson reported from Richmond. Associated Press Writer Bob Lewis in Richmond and P.J. Dickerscheid in Charleston, W.Va., contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS the spelling of Kaine spokeswoman's name to Lynda, not Linda.)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091205/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shootings