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Reuters
Colorado shooting suspect James Eagan Holmes makes his first court appearance in Aurora, Colorado on July 23.
The suspect in a deadly movie theater attack in Colorado threatened a professor before the shooting, leading the university to ban him from campus, prosecutors said in court documents released Friday.
The name of the person James Eagan Holmes threatened has been blacked out. Prosecutors say the person reported the threats, and Holmes was denied access to campus "as a result of these actions."
In other documents, defense attorneys say the prosecutor's allegations are false, based on university statements.
The University of Colorado has said Holmes was denied access to non-public parts of the campus because he had withdrawn from school.
Holmes, 24, faces 152 charges in the July 20 shooting at an Aurora movie theater during a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises." The attack killed 12 people and injured 58 others. After the shootings, police went to Holmes' apartment which was wired with a complex system of tripwires and explosive devices.
Defense attorneys claim Holmes is mentally ill, raising the possibility that Holmes will plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
In court, prosecutors have raised the prospect that Holmes was angry at the failure of a once promising academic career and stockpiled weapons, ammunition, tear gas grenades, and body armor as his research deteriorated and professors urged him to get into another profession.
After weeks of secrecy surrounding the case, most of the documents filed in court were released to the public on Friday.
In his order, Judge William Sylvester said that the release, with some restrictions, and considerable redaction, balances the public's First Amendment rights to see the court file, and attorneys' concerns. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had asked that court documents be sealed to preserve an ongoing investigation and protect Holmes' right to a fair trial.
Sylvester ordered that some information in the documents released Friday have information blacked out to protect the identities of witnesses. Documents that won't be released include an arrest affidavit, which contains information about the investigation, as well as requests for search warrants and subpoenas.
Many of the newly released documents unveil the legal struggle over the relationship between Holmes and a psychiatrist. The defense has argued that the relationship is privileged and that the evidence should not information that may have passed between the doctor about Holmes. Prosecutors have downplayed the formality of the relationship which they say ended well before the July 20 attack.
See all available documents on the case
The newly released documents, though heavily redacted, suggest that prosecutors believe the doctor had knowledge that Holmes posed a threat.
"The statutes of the General Assembly, and those of Congress, and the Constitution of the United States, are designed to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for everyone. They cannot be construed as to prevent [redacted]from sharing with appropriate individuals’ information necessary to secure the safety — or even the life — of the [redacted]. They cannot be construed to allow an individual to make threats against the safety of the community and at the same time, prohibit the recipient of such threats from acting on them. [Redacted portion.]“[W]hile the Constitution protects against invasions of individual rights, it is not a suicide pact."
Previous court documents confirmed that Holmes sent a package to the University of Colorado psychiatrist, Lynne Fenton.
The package contains a notebook that reportedly includes descriptions and drawings of an attack, but Fenton said she never saw the notebook, which was sitting in an unopened package in a university mail room when authorities obtained it.
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The newly released documents also reveal that investigators have gleaned information from a witness described as a colleague of Holmes at the University of Colorado. The witness was interviewed by police, and also gave police access to text messages he received from Holmes.
According to the document, which explained redaction of the records, forensics experts said they could not isolate the text messages from the rest of the content on the phone, so they downloaded all of it — 2,275 pages of personal contacts, photographs, and personal conversations with the witness's therapist — and then redacted all but a handful of text messages from Holmes.
NBC News' Kari Huus and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Well, it sounds like all the signs were there and, as usual, were ignored until it was too late. Our mental health services in this country are abysmal since they are underfunded and still treated like it's some 'witchcraft'. We need to lose our taboos about mental illness and start buoying up our resources- there are more people in need of help than we realize. Could be our own next door neighbors.
You/we need to wake up and realize just what the world powers are up to. They have LIED their asses of all thru history, and they are doing everything in their dishonest power to convince the public to "Disarm" themselves, only so they can have COMPLETE control of their "Subjects"=YOU and ME. You are playing right into their hands. Think about it for a day or two. How many times has your Govt. lied to you? Oh yes, you do know it happens all the time. But you feel better living in complete denial, soon you will no longer be able to live in denial, when it comes home to effect you, just like it did the Jew's, only this time there won't be another country to come to your rescue, like there was for the Jew's!
then again he could be a scumbag crybaby who went postal and took the cowards road by killing defenseless innocents.
CV- His doctor was worried enough to bring his case to the attention of a special board that's supposed to deal with people who might do things like this. They dropped the ball, in my opinion. Yes, he apparently was mentally ill and not "just a crybaby." Crybabys don't massacre people.
REMEMBER THE VICTIMS!!
Not just your opinion, Huh! Proven fact. This is the result of not dealing with threats and crazy behavior when there is still a chance to do something.
Earlier this week a man shot and killed his own teenaged son who was dressed in dark clothes with a black ski mask and brandishing a gun. 15 years old and already acting crazy. He had threatened to kill and rape his aunt. Now he's dead. And should be.
Too bad the same didn't happen to this orange-haired @!$%#bird when he was 15. Several people who were in that theater would be alive now.
Steve the dog man...The boy who was shot by his father was not "acting crazy" or "threatened to kill and rape his aunt" and should not be dead. He was mistaken for a burglar and it was an unfortunate accident.
link to that story (which has nothing to do with this story)
I do not understand why the news media is even bothering telling us anything further about this retarded idiot..why is the jerk even still breathing..oh..forgot for a second that the lawyers and the system have to make money from the taxpayer for trying this piece of garbage..the sooner he is gone...the better..and the powers that be wonder why the people do not like the justice system..it is cases like this where it is a cut and dried case..(guilty)...yet he still is breathing... that make it that way
I'm not sure I understand how being "banned from campus" and "voluntarily withdrawing from school" mesh in the same sentence.
No kerrry-2732604: it is not because:
It is because the system requires due process for everyone. We can't pick and choose when to apply it because if we did then that would be a corrupt system.
Hey there Folks,
Being that I have a pyshcotic diagnosis, I can reasonably say I know something about this.
1. When I was younger I had more thoughts of harming people particularly after onset of the illness when I was in the US Army
2. It took 10 years and several types of medical treatment before I was able to cool my heels
3. most people turn psychotic shortly after Puberty
4. psychotics have high self kill rates
4a. This is one reason military self kills are on the rise
4a1. this is because they feel they are thinking bad thoughts and can not get sleep which ascerbates the problem
so It takes time to loose the bad ass thoughts but that is what they are bad ass thoughts.
Sincerely,
verong
If someone threatens someone, it doesn't always follow that he or she is derainged. I peronally believe he is sane. I also believe he is just plain EVIL!!!!! I'm not the Judge, or the jury, so I'll wait for the outcome
Okay Joe..I do believe that when there is doubt, even a little..all are due their date in court..but this loser planned this whole thing out months in advance before he did this..and even rigged his apartment to kill more people..then the insanity plea is entered..to me you can't have more of a corrupt system.then having this trial..the lawyers should be very ashamed for even taking on this case..I stand by what I said in my comment..it is all about how much money the system can and will make on this stupid trial
kerrry - We are guaranteed due process by the Constitution whether there is doubt or not. Who are we going to let decide whether there's doubt - you? It has nothing to do with how much money they system will make, it has to do with protecting the rights of the accused so that someday when YOU are accused of something, your rights will be protected also.
Shows how competent neuro-science dept. A promising studen changes academic environments and location and falls apart trying to adjust and the best advice they have to get a new profession? Plus they turn him over to authorities and no is keeping an eye on his actions over a period of months? All of these shooting cases have a common point, authorites knew about them and did nothing. It is beginning to look intentional to me. The question is what authority is taking the cases when they are reported. Sounds like someon isn't telling.
This jack hole is going to get away with murder. All the signs were there. That he was a mentally ill freak show. Remember Andrea Yates? She also saw a psychiatrist, but her husband and people around her ignored the facts. So, the only way to get people to notice were to drown her 2 babies. This fool tried tell people he was losing his mind. That does not justify what he did, because in the end he knew right from wrong. But when people don't listen, sh*t happens.
I hope he does get off!
Spending the rest of his life committed to a mental institution is hardly getting away with murder. Yes, there are often signs that something bad is going to happen. Unfortunately, many times the signs are much clearer in retrospect than they are at the time.
I am from the old school, Electrocute him now. He didnt have any problem killing innocents. We the citizens need to rid society from people such as this. Do not spend our tax money on people who do these things.
Actually, you appear to be from the fascist dictator school. Real Americans, patriotic Americans would not want anyone executed before a fair and impartial trial. If you want to act like someone from a totalitarian dictatorship, I can give you plently of suggestions for countries you should consider.
A little boy in day care told another little girl he was going to kill her. Thank God the girl reported it right away and 6 year old menace was taken into custody before anything happened.
That was meant to be a joke. Millions of threats are made every single day. The only person to blame for this is the Shooter.
dude get with the program...there is a BIG difference between a threat and a CREDIBLE threat...also there were OTHER signs/warning that this dude was getting ready to POP!!!
Had Holmes been a woman or a minority this never would have happened because they never would have failed him on the oral test due to the fear of descrimination law suits.
wendy, please stop making idiotic statements. If you have nothing valuable to contribute logoff.
Just an FYI--
Pleading "not guilty by reason of insanity" is a defense that does not deny that James Holmes committed the crime. It acknowledges that Holmes has a mental illness which led him to commit the crime. If he is found "not guilty by reason of insanity" this does not mean that he is off the hook--it means that instead of going to prison, he will go to a mental hospital likely for the rest of his life (which I've heard is often worse than prison), as he should. He obviously has a mental illness--no one in their right mind would commit this type of crime.
Also, by law, a psychiatrist/psychologist can only report a threat if the threat is direct and imminent. This means that the threat has to be directed at a specific person/people and given a time. An example of this is someone saying "I am going to kill Joe tomorrow." Whether Holmes made a direct and imminent threat to his psychologist, we might never know. But we can't just lock people up in jails or hospitals against their will because we suspect they might do something--that is just not how our country works.
I am not justifying what Holmes did--it is a tragedy. I am sure justice will be served.
You people talking about how this country does and doesn't work have a lot to learn about how this country does and doesn't work. This and that can't be because the system would become corrupt? The system IS corrupt, and has been since before JFK.
I hate to bring the subject up but does anybody know what is the Religion of this guy? I can tell for sure that he is NOT from one particular religion because if he were, most of the reporting and comments would have been on THAT religion and its followers! Strange how things go sometimes....
My thoughts and prayers are with the people who lost loved ones to this tragic and similar events.
A mental hospital is worse than prison? Please!!!! I'd rather have this dude committed with all the other thugs and get it where the sun doesnt shine! I'd love for him to constantly be looking over his shoulder, never knowing when his last day might be. And @ There is Ecstasy...quit trying to tie religion into this and stir up the pot, you sicko. Its a clean discussion about mental health/science/the human brain. Nothing religious about it!
My guess is the University, in some way, is more than partly responsible for not preventing this.. Look at the area(s) of study Mr. Homes was engaged in.... A difficult to get into University that TREATS it's students while teaching them... It bans this student from it's campus... The immediate gag order... Something just doesn't quite jive... Maybe.. just maybe... Fenton already knew (other) contents of this notebook (things written prior to the allegedly written outline of a massacre), reported him and immediately cut ties cause she did not want any further dealings with such a wacco or any part of what looked to be disaster waiting to happen.. Maybe he and his notebook scared the living %^* out of her... so much that that was the reason the University banned him...... Maybe the University thought they had cut all ties with the ban.... I believe the University is covering their butt as best they can for as long as possible... yes... somehow something just doesn't jive.. As for Holmes... who knows what kind of treatment he was receiving alongside of his studies?? Somewhere... there must have been a cry for help looooong before he was banned from that campus.. because NO ONE in their right mind does something as atrocious as this. The bottom line: PREVENTION of these kinds of acts BEFORE they happen???