Gov. Tim Kaine not ruling out any action on Tech report

11:44 a.m.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is not ruling anything out in a review and possible revision of his special panel’s report on the April 16, 2007, massacre at Virginia Tech, including reconvening the panel, a spokeswoman said this morning.

Lynda Tran said the governor’s office wanted to apologize to victims’ families in case a letter from his lawyer yesterday did not make that clear.

She said the governor is concerned that reconvening the panel would be difficult, because members were all volunteers.

But, she said. “getting a factual narrative of what happened that day is a top priority.“

Families yesterday reacted angrily to the letter, which some said showed Kaine and the state government weren’t serious about examining the actions of state and Tech officials.

Last month, they called for the panel to be reconvened after long-missing mental health records of killer Seung Hui Cho turned up in the home of a former Tech official.

(This is a breaking news update)

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday again rejected calls by families of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre to reconvene his investigation panel.

The families’ latest request came after Kaine revealed last month that a former Tech official had kept long-missing mental-health records of killer Seung-Hui Cho at his house.

“I don’t know who [Kaine is] protecting. Obviously it isn’t the truth,“ said Suzanne Grimes, whose son, Kevin Sterne, nearly died during Cho’s rampage on April 16, 2007, the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.

The governor disclosed his decision in an e-mail signed by his lawyer and sent yesterday to families by an assistant to his chief of staff.

After briefings to families last year and a series of Tech documents obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch that showed discrepancies in the investigative report, Kaine said he would review the report and correct any errors.

Late last year, his office told families that it would complete fact-finding by the end of March. Earlier this year, he said he would not reconvene the panel.

So far, nothing in the report has been changed. It took longer than expected to determine how to handle suggested revisions, Kaine spokeswoman Lynda Tran said yesterday.

Kaine’s e-mail says families should submit any suggested corrections by Aug. 19.

The e-mail also says the governor’s office is hiring the same consulting company that helped compile the original report to review those suggestions.

“They didn’t get it right the first time. I don’t know how they’ll get it right the second time,“ Grimes said.

Tran said the governor believed the consultant did a good job of compiling the report on a tight deadline, in order to come up with recommendations for schools and the legislature. The new assignment—to review and possibly revise the report as a record of the event—is different, Tran said.

Last year, police and Tech officials stunned families and victims by disclosing—months after Kaine’s panel reported—that the official timeline in the panel report was wrong. They said the length of time police focused on the wrong suspect in the first two shootings the morning of April 16 was much shorter than the panel reported, raising new questions about whether the delay in warning the campus that day was justified.

Tech documents later obtained by The Times-Dispatch showed that Tech locked down some buildings after Cho’s first two killings, even though the school’s top officials decided against a general warning.

It was only last month, as a former Tech official named in two lawsuits filed this year prepared for an interview with plaintiffs’ lawyers, that Cho’s long-missing mental-health records surfaced. The former director of the university counseling center had the records at his home.

He turned them over to the university nearly a week before Kaine disclosed they had been uncovered.

Michael Pohle, whose son Michael died in the massacre, said: “What is being done reminds me of the movie ‘Dodgeball,‘ where Rip Torn played the coach and told his team that if you learned the five ‘D’s of dodgeball, you would be a good player. Those five were: dodge, dip, drop, dive and dodge.“

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12:31 a.m.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine Monday again rejected calls by families of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre to reconvene his investigation panel.

The families’ latest request came after Kaine revealed last month that a former Tech official had kept long-missing mental-health records of killer Seung-Hui Cho at his house.

“I don’t know who [Kaine is] protecting. Obviously it isn’t the truth,“ said Suzanne Grimes, whose son, Kevin Sterne, nearly died during Cho’s rampage on April 16, 2007, the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.

The governor disclosed his decision in an e-mail signed by his lawyer and sent yesterday to families by an assistant to his chief of staff.

After briefings to families last year and a series of Tech documents obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch that showed discrepancies in the investigative report, Kaine said he would review the report and correct any errors.

Late last year, his office told families that it would complete fact-finding by the end of March. Earlier this year, he said he would not reconvene the panel.

So far, nothing in the report has been changed. It took longer than expected to determine how to handle suggested revisions, Kaine spokeswoman Lynda Tran said yesterday.

Kaine’s e-mail says families should submit any suggested corrections by Aug. 19.

The e-mail also says the governor’s office is hiring the same consulting company that helped compile the original report to review those suggestions.

“They didn’t get it right the first time. I don’t know how they’ll get it right the second time,“ Grimes said.

Tran said the governor believed the consultant did a good job of compiling the report on a tight deadline, in order to come up with recommendations for schools and the legislature. The new assignment—to review and possibly revise the report as a record of the event—is different, Tran said.

Last year, police and Tech officials stunned families and victims by disclosing—months after Kaine’s panel reported—that the official timeline in the panel report was wrong. They said the length of time police focused on the wrong suspect in the first two shootings the morning of April 16 was much shorter than the panel reported, raising new questions about whether the delay in warning the campus that day was justified.

Tech documents later obtained by The Times-Dispatch showed that Tech locked down some buildings after Cho’s first two killings, even though the school’s top officials decided against a general warning.

It was only last month, as a former Tech official named in two lawsuits filed this year prepared for an interview with plaintiffs’ lawyers, that Cho’s long-missing mental-health records surfaced. The former director of the university counseling center had the records at his home.

He turned them over to the university nearly a week before Kaine disclosed they had been uncovered.

Michael Pohle, whose son Michael died in the massacre, said: “What is being done reminds me of the movie ‘Dodgeball,‘ where Rip Torn played the coach and told his team that if you learned the five ‘D’s of dodgeball, you would be a good player. Those five were: dodge, dip, drop, dive and dodge.“