Authorities decided soon after the Columbine High School massacre to withhold a document showing deputies knew one of the killers had been accused two years earlier of making death threats and building pipe bombs, according to a grand jury report released Thursday.
The grand jury also said it was "troubled" by still-missing documents in what remains the deadliest school attack in US history. But it did not hand up any indictments, closing at least the third investigation that has elected not to place any blame for the slaughter of 13 people by suicidal teens Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Victims' families said the report confirmed their suspicions that the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office covered up mistakes that could have led authorities to the killers as much as two years before the attack.
The grand jury said it didn't hand up any indictments because all the witnesses claimed to know nothing about the missing sheriff's records. The records involved a draft search warrant for Harris' house a year before the attack.
Salazar took the case to the grand jury after the sheriff asked him to investigate last fall.
The grand jury report said the draft affidavit, never submitted to a judge, was the subject of "a private meeting of high-ranking Jefferson County officials and law enforcement officials" called a few days after the attack to discuss the document and its "potential liabilities."
Randy and Judy Brown, who contacted the sheriff's office in 1997 and 1998 with complaints about Harris -- including allegations he had threatened their son, Brooks -- said the private meeting is evidence of a cover-up by authorities.
"This is collusion. This is criminal. This is a criminal conspiracy," Brown said after he met with the attorney general's staff.
At this point, investigations may have run dry in the massacre.
"The whole thing stinks to high heaven," said Scott Robinson, a criminal defense attorney, summing up the worst fears of survivors and families of victims.
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