Posted on 01/09/2002 12:14:37 PM PST by t-shirt
Deputy admits to Columbine tape
January 8, 2002
Sheriff says written statement on shooting of Rohrbough was true but that recording isn't
By Kevin Vaughan, News Staff Writer
A sheriff's deputy has acknowledged that it is his voice on controversial tape recordings in which he claimed to have seen a student shot at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan said he has heard the eight short sections of the tape that were played last week for reporters after Deputy Jim Taylor issued a written statement denying that he'd seen any of the victims wounded in the school tragedy.
"It is Taylor's voice, and he has admitted that it is him on those pieces," Sullivan said Monday.
Sullivan was asked how the tape recording matched Taylor's written statement, which was given Dec. 31.
"It doesn't," Sullivan said.
? However, Sullivan said he believes Taylor was telling the truth when he denied seeing anyone get shot.
The Dec. 31 statement "is solid," Sullivan said.
"It is the truth," he said. "What's on the tape isn't."
If Taylor did see Rohrbough get shot, it would call into question the official timeline of events issued by the Jefferson County sheriff's department, which has determined that Rohrbough was killed by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris in the first minutes of the rampage, before any law enforcement officers arrived.
Taylor, who has been with the department since 1988, remained on administrative leave Monday. He did not return a message left at his home.
The controversy came in the wake of a Dec. 26 court filing in which the family of Daniel Rohrbough named a Denver police officer as the alleged killer of the boy. In that court filing, the Rohrbough family cited as evidence statements made by Taylor to the boy's mother and stepfather, Sue and Rich Petrone.
They alleged that Taylor had told them he had seen Rohrbough get shot outside the school just after arriving.
Five days later, Sullivan's office issued a press release, claiming that Taylor was never in a position to see anyone get shot at the school. It also claimed that "Deputy Taylor states that he has not said anything to the Rohrbough family that could lead them to believe he witnessed any shots being fired at Columbine."
Then came the release of sections of the tape.
In them, Taylor talked about seeing a boy get shot in the chaos at the school. He told the Petrones that "it was Dan, and I didn't know that until I seen the photo the next morning in the newspaper that it was the boy that I seen."
That same day, Sullivan's office released Taylor's written Dec. 31 statement.
Sullivan said he could not discuss the conflict between the two statements because it is under investigation.
In the meantime, Sullivan and members of Rohrbough's family have agreed to meet Friday.
Sullivan has asked that he be allowed to hear the entire tape-recorded discussion involving the Petrones and Taylor and his wife.
But the boy's father, Brian Rohrbough, said, "I'm not going to release the full tape at this time."
Contact Kevin Vaughan at (303) 892-5019 or vaughank@RockyMountainNews.com.
Who do you hold in more contempt, a common criminal or a sworn police officer who commits a crime? Well?
Klebold and Harris or the cops?
I hold them in an equal amount of contempt but for differing reasons. What about you, Dane?
Like I stated to you before, you do you hold in more contempt?
Let me ask you again and make sure everything is grammatically correct for the lawsuit.
Libelous statement? Come on and come after me for asking a question.
Like I stated before, who do you hold in more contempt?(Harris and Klebold or the cops)
Klebold and Harris. For if it wasn't for their actions, Columbine would have never happened, IMO.
I hope you are gathering evidence Smedley. How dare someone give their opinion, right Smedley.
one_particular_harbour, looks like you have a client.
Who do you hold in more contempt when they commit a crime, a sworn police officer or a criminal?
The cops didn't perpetrate Columbine, from what I have read it was Klebold and Harris and until someone can prove that Klebold and Harris were not the perpetrators, they hold the ultimate blame.
I've always kind of ignored you, but you really are pathetic.
Do you think two wrongs make a right?
That is really over the line. If you are a law enforcement officer, as some on this thread have written, you should be hanging your head in shame over the actions of the police that day, denouncing their manifest cowardice for the stain it has left on your profession, a cowardice which all the world witnessed on television, rather than worrying about "smears" from reporters and slandering the parents of a murdered child.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
More authoritarian spin to cast anyone that they see as a threat as the villains and they as the saints.
"If Taylor did see Rohrbough get shot, it would call into question the official timeline of events issued by the Jefferson County sheriff's department, which has determined that Rohrbough was killed by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris in the first minutes of the rampage, before any law enforcement officers arrived"
Obviously he saw the police shooting because he personally, while being recorded, testified to the parents the facts.
"Sullivan said he could not discuss the conflict between the two statements because it is under investigation. "
Typical authoritarian response to give them time to come up with an improved spin to try and extricate themselves form the previous lying fabrication.
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