Department of Justice Can’t Find Files From Rocky Flats Grand Jury Investigation

Leaders of Rocky Flats community groups today filed a motion in federal court demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice identify where it has stored case records from the 1989 -1992 Special Grand Jury investigation into criminal actions at the former nuclear weapons factory at Rocky Flats. The DOJ says it cannot locate the records that include between 62-65 boxes of material.

Attorney Patricia Mellen says that earlier this year, a coalition of groups including the Alliance of Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups and Rocky Flats Right to Know, petitioned to release the documents saying they were critical to resolving current disputed issues such as construction of the Rocky Flats Refuge trails and visitor center and the Jefferson Parkway.

“We’re hoping to find the evidence required to evaluate the clean up. No clean up actions were undertaken on the land that is now considered the refuge. All of the clean up areas were contained in what was at the end of clean up designated the Superfund site. And so the refuge was cleared for what the Department of Energy and the EPA called “safe for unlimited use and unrestricted exposure” except that mathematical risk calculation is based on a wildlife refuge worker running around on a four wheeler or a pick up truck…it’s a surface determination, so it’s not valid to undertake activities that require digging.”

The motion filed in federal court now orders the DOJ to identify within 30 days where it has stored the records from the grand jury case.

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