Panel Gets Cho Mental-Health Files

Jun 15, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Kevin Johnson

Virginia authorities began reviewing the mental-health records of Virginia Tech student gunman Seung Hui Cho on Thursday after his family released the documents to a state panel whose access to the material had been blocked by state and federal privacy laws.

Panel spokesman James Kudla said the agreement marked a breakthrough for investigators conducting a wide-ranging review of the April 16 massacre.

Among the issues is how the university responded to numerous reports of Cho's erratic behavior prior to the rampage that left 32 dead in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. The assault ended when a heavily armed Cho killed himself as police closed in.

Kudla said the agreement was a step toward gaining access to Cho's entire medical history, which authorities said was key to identifying potential institutional breakdowns that allowed Cho to plan and execute the attacks.

Kudla did not elaborate on the contents of the records, adding that the documents would not be released to the public.

Earlier this week, panel members and victims' families expressed frustration with a tangle of federal and state laws that limited reviews of Cho's background, even after his death.

"The panel needs access to all of Cho's records," more than a dozen family members said in a written statement to the panel at a hearing Monday in Fairfax, Va.

The records delivered to the panel cover Cho's enrollment at Virginia Tech when he was admitted to a nearby mental health facility in December 2005. Cho was taken to Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Center in nearby Radford after his roommates feared that Cho had become suicidal when police were called to question him about harassing a female student.

Cho spent the night at the facility and was later referred for outpatient treatment at a university-related counseling center by a local judge, who ruled that the troubled student was a possible danger to himself. Cho never followed up on the judge's treatment order.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said the university had been seeking release of the records since last month. He said the university had been communicating with the family through northern Virginia law enforcement officials.

"We want the panel to have the necessary information it needs to do what it was charged to do," Hincker said. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.