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6,300 pieces of evidence withheld by sheriff's office
Published April 3, 2003 at midnight
Approximately 6,300 documents and items related to the Columbine shooting remain sealed inside the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, officials said Wednesday.
They also said that's not a full accounting of all items.
The numbers were released at a Columbine Records Review Task Force meeting.
Task force co-chair and solicitor general Alan Gilbert said the sheriff's office has 32,000 documents and items, which he classified as "very highly organized." Approximately 26,000 have been released.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Tallman said the 32,000 figure includes a particular batch of 1,200 items featuring CD-ROMs of photos, videos, yearbooks and school papers from Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
But that is only a partial accounting of all evidence items. The sheriff has thousands of bullet fragments, bombs and weapons not typically released to the public.
Approximately 11,000 crime scene photos have not been released.
Gilbert is planning a more detailed inventory.
Attorney General Ken Salazar and possibly others will then recommend to Sheriff Russ Cook what they believe should be released.
Salazar did not rule out a lawsuit to get more documents released, but said it is still early in the process.
Gilbert provided a breakdown of the 6,300 documents and items based on his preliminary review:
3,000 pages of medical records.
1,200 videos, photos and written documents.
850 "cross-reference" sheets indicating where certain documents are located.
600 pages of photo lineups and criminal histories.
450 pages of writings from Harris and Klebold.
250 pages of search warrants.
Task force member Randy Brown on Wednesday circulated a January court filing indicating the sheriff has "no objection to the unsealing of any remaining warrants."
Also Wednesday, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas said he will seek a court order to release dozens of pages from his office known as the "prosecutor's files."
The files were opened when Harris and Klebold were caught breaking into a van more than one year before the shootings.
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