Story by Keith Jaco, Staff writer
Families of the victims of the Marshall County High School shooting were in court Tuesday, Feb. 12, for the first time since filing civil lawsuits, even though accused shooter Gabriel Parker doesn’t have an attorney for the cases.
Although Parker currently does not have an attorney in the civil suits, Marshall County Circuit Court Judge, Jamie Jameson said Parker will be appointed a guardian ad litem, a court-appointed representative for a minor.
The first case was brought forth by Jasen and Secret Holt, Bailey Holt’s parents, as well as the parents of three students injured in the shooting: Gage Smock, Mary Bella James and Dalton Keeling. The suit targets five school board members, Superintendent Trent Lovett, Principal Amy Waggoner, four assistant principals, a counselor and Director of Security and School Resource Officer Ray Chumbler. In addition to the school district officials, the suit also named Parker, as well as his stepfather and mother.
Brian and Teresa Cope, the parents of Preston Cope who were in attendance Tuesday morning, filed a separate civil lawsuit against accused shooter Gabriel Parker as well as his mother and stepfather.
Despite not representing Parker in the civil lawsuits, his criminal attorney Tom Griffiths was in the courtroom Tuesday.
“All we filed in this case was a notice,” Griffiths said. “That’s not a motion; that’s not a request. It’s really just a heads up. We filed that to make sure that in the civil case people didn’t do things that upset the apple cart in the criminal case.”
Griffiths said he and the Commonwealth are going through a large amount of discovery for the criminal case, the most he has ever seen in his career.
“The last thing in the world we need is somebody coming in and messing with witnesses, messing with evidence, trying to interview my client when they know they shouldn’t,” Griffiths said. “Just to be clear, I am not saying that they would have done any of that. That’s why I filed it on day one, just as a notice, a heads up, that we are invoking all privileges and that they shouldn’t do anything in the civil case that’s going to upset the criminal case.”
The attorney in the first civil lawsuit, Sheila Hiestand, who represents the families of four students, filed a response to Griffiths’ notice.
“That was not his case,” Jameson said. “It was not appropriate for him to file the motion that he filed.”
Griffiths said he was concerned about his client being interviewed and his medical records being pulled in the civil lawsuits before Parker was appointed an attorney.
“I have no problem with what the judge said,” Griffiths said.
He said he didn’t want civil counsel to interfere with the criminal case.
Jameson did not set the next court appearance for the civil lawsuits. However, Parker will be back in court in the criminal case on March 8.
