$1.5 million settlement reached in Red Lake shootings

The injured and the families of those killed in the 2005 Red Lake shootings have reached a $1.5 million settlement with a firm hired to develop a crisis management plan at the school, bringing to $2.5 million the amount victims will receive from lawsuits.

Hennepin County District Court Judge Lloyd Zimmerman called the agreement, which was announced Tuesday, a "historic settlement of the most horrific school tragedy in Minnesota history."

Lawyer Philip Sieff said the amount is easily among the most received in a high-school shooting nationwide.

On March 21, 2005, Jeff Weise, 16, killed seven people at the school before killing himself. Earlier in the day, he had killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend.

The settlement is in addition to the $1 million that the Red Lake School District agreed in July 2006 to pay to the 21 families of those killed or injured.

The latest settlement will be divided among the 21 plaintiffs in the suit against MacNeil Environmental of Burnsville. Attorney Roger Gross, who represented MacNeil, did not attend the hearing. Reached Tuesday evening, he said, as he has in the past, that the settlement was amicable and did not involve any admission of guilt by his clients. He declined to comment further.

Now comes the decision about how to divide the money among those who buried family members and those who were injured. First was the issue of who will decide how to split the $1.5 million.

Sieff pushed for Zimmerman himself, but Rich Ruohonen, who represents Steven Cobenais, the most seriously injured student, asked for a hired arbitrator to make the decision, saying that hiring one would cost no more than about $15,000. Greg McEwen, whose nine clients include Jeff May, who tried to stop Weise, agreed with Ruohonen, saying an arbitrator would have an understanding of personal-injury settlements.

Of his client, McEwen said, "This is a boy that will need a lifetime of care. ... He took a bullet in his head, and it's still in his head."

But Sieff said the arbitrator would cost much more than Ruohonen's estimate and noted among his clients are "six families who buried children."

Zimmerman sided with Sieff and agreed to take on the matter of allocation himself. He intends to use the time he set aside in January for a trial in this case and said there would be "no higher privilege than to be the judge in this historic settlement."

The lawyers have until Oct. 31 to come up with guidelines for how the January hearings will be conducted. Zimmerman said he will travel north, possibly to the reservation if allowed, if that's what it takes. He told the three lawyers to take a message to their 21 clients that "the court will do whatever it can to lessen the pain, lessen the hardship."

During the 40-minute court session, the settlement was repeatedly called historic. Sieff later said it was historic for Minnesota and among the largest in the nation. In court, he said the settlement was reached after a day with a mediator last month. He said future legal claims are "highly unlikely."

The lawsuits said MacNeil was supposed to help the Red Lake School District implement a five-year program in the fall of 2001 to provide a crisis management plan, train school officials and evaluate the school's security weaknesses. State law was changed after the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., to require such plans.

The lawsuits claimed MacNeil failed to develop a plan as recommended by the U.S. Department of Education and provided the district with confusing and conflicting plans.

Francis (Chunky) Brun, whose son, Derrick, was a security guard slain at the school, said Tuesday evening that he doesn't know how much if any of the settlement his family might receive.

"I think the other families feel the same way -- all money does is corrupt people," he said. "I just feel that no amount of money, even if I was fortunate enough to get anything, would be enough to erase those horrible days from my mind."

Staff writer Maria Baca contributed to this report.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747