Aurora Shooter is going to trial! Civil Suits Filed..

The source is an apolitical courthouse news service that covers basic court filings and news relating to the legal world. Here is what they're reporting:

DENVER (CN) - Victims of the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo. sued the Cinemark movie chain Wednesday, the day before a state judge ruled that James Holmes must stand trial for the shooting spree that killed 12 and wounded 70 people.

Arapahoe County Judge William Sylvester ruled Thursday night that there is sufficient evidence to hold James Holmes for trial on 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and weapons charges. Holmes, 25, is accused of massacring people at the midnight opening of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises," at the

Both federal complaints contain grisly firsthand accounts of the carnage.
Both complaints say Cinemark USA dba Century Aurora 16 could have prevented the massacre.
Both complaints say: "Upon information and belief, before July 20, 2012, defendant had information that previous disturbances, incidents, disruptions and other criminal activities had taken place at or near the property of the theater.

Source - Courthouse News

It's a very lengthy piece they have there with a great deal quoted out of the civil complaints. I warn everyone, legal filings in a case like this aren't sanitized or clean in any way.

They are blunt so don't go over to the source if details are not what you want to read. I'm serious on that to be helpful.

However, two very important things to take from this. Of course, Holmes will be standing trial. Perhaps more importantly though, civil suits at the Federal level are started and working. Discovery is a part of that and all kinds of things come out. In fact, EVERYTHING comes out in discovery.

The answers on this one are more certain to be known now, I believe, than would have been likely before. I'm sure family of the victims will insure the process is pushed to the absolute limits for finding what happened at the level needed to answer the questions.

I figured I would bring this to share though and I think of it squarely under the Good News category.

S^F Wabbit, cause this I want to follow

But heyyy, wheres the other 2 shooters??

A total of 70 people were shot in this incident, right?

How can you sue a business for the action of a sole individual? I hope the suite gets tossed. The theater didn't invite James in to kill those people he did it on his own. Hell he could have just as well went to each of there houses and shot them there then who would they sue? Toss it.

reply to post by marbles87

On this specific issue and how it played out for stopping the shootings? Sure... It's fair to say that.

However, I didn't realize there was a considerable history of problems at this location and that the cops outside that night may well have been there for more than pure traffic control on a major movie opening night as I'd always assumed.

The way the details of the filings read, there really are some numbers for violent 911 calls to the theater and perhaps security on the door IS more a concern than it would be here local to me ..again as I'd been thinking of it as.

Who knows,.,,,,but here is another shooting where a great deal is unknown and the civil court process is the best way for that to be forced out to the light of day in original/official form. That's always a positive thing when the alternative is a national level tragedy for emotional impact and unanswered questions, IMO.

reply to post by marbles87


It's the American way these days. You should have expected someone would sue. It's likely the company will just settle for an ungodly sum, the lawyers will take 60% of it and life will go on.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


True I would love to see video of the guards reaction or how everything panned out but then still not the theaters fault its the securities. In las Vegas we had METRO cops guard the Rave movie theater. They were more of a deterant than anything from how they just stood there and directed walking traffic flow in an out. The thing is very few people will ever know what it's like to really engage an active shooter situation. You could put 10 guards at a door and if they all freeze up when the "pops" start happening what worth are they.

Once another mass shooting occurs which it will with our mental health of the nation and the world slipping who will they sue then?

reply to post by antonia

If it settles that way then I will be disappointed. It's not the lawsuit as such that I'm happy to hear about but the arrival in civil court for what that means at getting actual facts out. I'm hoping the families wouldn't let important questions remain when that process can answer them as well anything will.