Discovery of Cho’s records brings more questions

Updated Thursday, 12:27 a.m.
BY: David Ress and Jim Nolan
Richmond Times Dispatch

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 panel he named to investigate the massacre would use the records to correct any errors in their 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.

———————————-
7:00 p.m. update
by Scott Leamon, WSLS Reporter

  A Tech spokesman told me this afternoon the university has nothing to hide and hopes that the Cho mental health records will be released.
  If made public, the university is required to make the records part of its public archive.  The requirement is part of a settlement with more than two dozen of the victims’ families last year.
  It will be up to the Cho family to decide who gets to see the records.  Their legal options include sealing the records, which would probably lead to a legal battle in the pending Pryde and Peterson civil suits, allow on the attorneys in the pending litigation see the files, or allow all records to be made public.

  I went by Dr. Miller’s Blacksburg home.  Several neighbors confirmed he lived at an address off Airport Road, which is where he stored Cho’s file for the better part of the past three years.
  I left a message on his cell phone, on his work phone at the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and also with his attorney in Richmond.
  So far none have been returned.

  The Tech spokesman said Dr. Miller had “retired” from the university last month.

  A State Police spokeswoman said investigators were checking to see if Miller did anything criminally wrong by taking Cho’s mental health records to his home.  There have been no determinations as of yet.

  I also talked to a couple of legal experts about what finding the records means for the pending Peterson and Pryde civil cases.
  Everybody I talked to agreed it will likely have little impact, since lawyers for the families have to prove such a high level of negligence on Tech’s part in order to win their case.

Click here to read the statement sent to the April 16th families

 

On WSLS at 6:00 p.m. where these missing mental records and the Doctor fit in the April 16th timeline

2:11 p.m.

By BOB LEWIS and SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writers

    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - 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 shared with 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.
    They were revealed by a lawyer involved in a lawsuit filed by two families of Cho’s victims against the former director, the university and several other parties, claiming gross negligence in failing to prevent the massacre.
    A memo from the university to Gov. Tim Kaine’s chief legal counsel and shared with 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 left the clinic.
    Kaine said a Virginia State Police criminal investigation was under way into why the records disappeared. Removing records from the center is illegal, he said.
    Miller, 54, declined to comment when reached at a number for his private practice.
    Miller is named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed by the families of slain students Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde. The suit claims Miller was told by Cho’s English professors about his disturbing behavior and by the school’s residential director that Cho had a history of erratic behavior, suicidal thoughts and had “blades” in his room.
    The lawsuit claims Miller never passed that information on to either of the therapists from the counseling center who dealt with Cho during three 45-minute triage sessions in 2005.
    Because Miller never passed on the information and the records were lost, opportunities to “deflect him (Cho) from his dangerous and ultimately tragic course were lost,“ the lawsuit states.
    Notes of the warnings to Miller or those made by the therapists concerning the three meetings were never found by investigators. It is unclear if those are part of the recovered records.
    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 shakes up the 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.
    Kaine said he was dismayed that it took two years to find the records.
    “That is part of the investigation that I am very interested in and, of course, I’m very concerned about that,“ Kaine said.
    The discovery calls into question the thoroughness of the ongoing criminal probe and the findings of the Virginia Tech Review Panel, 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.
    “To say it doesn’t make sense is an injustice,“ she said. “It gives me the impression: ‘What else are they hiding?“‘
    While a large part of the shooting investigation focused on how university officials and law enforcement responded following the first reports of two deaths in a dormitory, family members of victims have also inquired how the troubled Cho slipped through the cracks at university counseling.
    Miller was not listed among the more than 200 people interviewed by the panel. The leader of the investigation, former Virginia State Police Superintendent Gerald Massengill, said Wednesday that investigators interviewed Miller’s successor at Cook Counseling Center, Dr. Christopher Flynn, but not Miller.
    Massengill said Cho’s records could be critical to understanding the rampage, depending “on what the records say, what they reveal.“
    “To have any documentation reflecting or giving an understanding of what actions Cook Counseling took was certainly what we were looking for,“ he said.
    Massengill said the records “should give us a better understanding of what actions the university did or did not take.“
    The public’s view of the troubled 23-year-old came from the video tirade he mailed to NBC News between the first two slayings in a dormitory and the killing of 30 more people in a classroom building.
    “Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats,“ Cho growled in the video. “Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn’t enough.“
    “You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood,“ Cho said.
    —-
    Associated Press Writer Dena Potter in Richmond contributed to this report. Lindsey reported from Roanoke.

————

1:34 p.m.

By BOB LEWIS and SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writers

    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - 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.
    They were uncovered by attorneys for two families of Cho’s victims who are suing the former director, the university and several other parties, claiming gross negligence in failing to prevent the massacre.
    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 left the clinic.
    Kaine said a Virginia State Police criminal investigation was under way into why the records disappeared. Removing records from the center is illegal, he said.
    Miller, 54, declined to comment when reached at a number for his private practice.
    Miller is named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed by the families of slain students Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde. The suit claims Miller was told by Cho’s English professors about his disturbing behavior and by the school’s residential director that Cho had a history of erratic behavior, suicidal thoughts and had “blades” in his room.
    The lawsuit claims Miller never passed that information on to either of the therapists from the counseling center who dealt with Cho during three 45-minute triage sessions in 2005.
    Because Miller never passed on the information and the records were lost, opportunities to “deflect him (Cho) from his dangerous and ultimately tragic course were lost,“ the lawsuit states.
    Notes of the warnings to Miller or those made by the therapists concerning the three meetings were never found by investigators. It is unclear if those are part of the recovered records.
    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 shakes up the 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.
    Kaine said he was dismayed that it took two years to find the records.
    “That is part of the investigation that I am very interested in and, of course, I’m very concerned about that,“ Kaine said.
    The discovery calls into question the thoroughness of the criminal probe two years ago and the findings of the Virginia Tech Review Panel, 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.
    “To say it doesn’t make sense is an injustice,“ she said. “It gives me the impression: ‘What else are they hiding?“‘
    While a large part of the shooting investigation focused on how university officials and law enforcement responded following the first reports of two deaths in a dormitory, family members of victims have also inquired how the troubled Cho slipped through the cracks at university counseling.
    Miller was not listed among the more than 200 people interviewed by the panel. The leader of the investigation, former Virginia State Police Superintendent Gerald Massengill, said Wednesday that investigators interviewed Miller’s successor at Cook Counseling Center, Dr. Christopher Flynn, but not Miller.
    Massengill said Cho’s records could be critical to understanding the rampage, depending “on what the records say, what they reveal.“
    “To have any documentation reflecting or giving an understanding of what actions Cook Counseling took was certainly what we were looking for,“ he said.
    Massengill said the records “should give us a better understanding of what actions the university did or did not take.“
    The public’s view of the troubled 23-year-old came from the video tirade he mailed to NBC News between the first two slayings in a dormitory and the killing of 30 more people in a classroom building.
    “Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats,“ Cho growled in the video. “Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn’t enough.“
    “You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood,“ Cho said.
    —-
    Associated Press Writer Dena Potter in Richmond contributed to this report. Lindsey reported from Roanoke.
   
———-

12:35 p.m.

By BOB LEWIS and SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writers

    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Missing mental health records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho have been discovered in the home of the university clinic’s former director, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
    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 investigation of the shootings.
    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 July 18 in the home of Dr. Robert H. Miller.
    The memo said the records were removed from the Cook Counseling Center on the Virginia Tech campus more than a year before the shootings.
    “I appreciate your call, but I’m not making comment at this time,“ Miller said when reached at a number for his private practice.
    The recovery of the records, which eluded a vast criminal investigation two years ago, was first announced by Kaine at a news conference on Wednesday.
    Kaine said a Virginia State Police criminal investigation into how the records disappeared from the center where Cho was ordered to undergo counseling is under way. Removing records from the center is illegal, he said.
    Kaine said he was dismayed that it took two years before they were found by attorneys in a lawsuit brought by families of the victims.
    “That is part of the investigation that I am very interested in and, of course, I’m very concerned about that,“ Kaine said.
    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.
    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 a local health center where Cho had gone to say he felt suicidal did not adequately treat or monitor him. The status of the lawsuit was not immediately known.
    Holly Sherman, whose daughter Leslie was among those killed, said in November that she was less concerned with continued analysis of how university officials responded to the massacre and more interested in learning about Cho’s mental treatment.
    Mike White, whose daughter Nicole was killed, said in November he was concerned about why Cho’s mental records went missing.
    Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin was shot four times but survived, said there was more work to be done on mental health services. Goddard was appointed last year to the state board of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.
    —-
    Associated Press Writer Dena Potter in Richmond contributed to this report. Lindsey reported from Roanoke.

————

12:10 p.m.

By BOB LEWIS and SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writers

    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - 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.

———

10:30 a.m.

By BOB LEWIS and SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writers

    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Associated Press has learned that missing mental health records for the Virginia Tech gunman have been discovered in the home of the former director of the university’s counseling center.
    Seung-Hui Cho (sung wee joh) 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 investigation of the shootings.
    A memo from Gov. Tim Kaine’s chief legal counsel says Cho’s records and those of several other Virginia Tech students were found July 18 in the home of Dr. Robert C. Miller.
    The memo to families of the massacre victims said the records were removed from the Cook Counseling Center on the Virginia Tech campus more than a year before the shootings.
    The recovery of the records, which eluded a vast criminal investigation two years ago, was announced first on Wednesday by Gov. Tim Kaine.

———

9:55 a.m.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Missing mental health records for Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho have been found more than two years after the massacre, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said Wednesday.
    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 investigation of the shootings. But his mental health records were missing from the university’s counseling center.
    Kaine said the records would be released as soon as possible. Lawyers in a civil lawsuit found the records in the possession of a former worker at the counseling center.
    The governor said taking confidential records from the counseling center was illegal and state police were investigating how the records disappeared.
    He said officials first would ask the administrator of Cho’s estate to release the files. A second option was to subpoena the records.
    He also said he was not happy that the criminal investigation of the shootings failed to uncover the files.
    While a large part of the shooting investigation focused on how university officials and law enforcement responded following the first reports of shootings in a Virginia Tech dormitory, family members of the victims have also inquired about 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 a local health center where Cho had gone to say he felt suicidal did not adequately treat or monitor him. The status of the lawsuit was not immediately known.
    Holly Sherman, whose daughter Leslie was among those killed, said in November that she was less concerned with continued analysis of how university officials responded to the massacre and more interested in learning about Cho’s mental treatment.
    Mike White, whose daughter Nicole was killed, said in November he was concerned about why Cho’s mental records went missing.
    Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin was shot four times but survived, said there was more work to be done on mental health services. Goddard was appointed last year to the state board of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.

——

9:27 a.m.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine says the missing mental health records for Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho (sung wee joh) have been found.
    Kaine made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday.
    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 investigation of the shootings. Those mental health records were missing from the university’s counseling center. Kaine said lawyers in a civil lawsuit found the records in the possession of a former worker at the counseling center.
    Kaine said the records will be released as soon as possible.