AURORA | The rift between the Aurora theater shooting victim families and the nonprofit that raised more than $5 million doesn’t appear to be narrowing.
On Tuesday, lawyers representing 24 relatives of some of the victims sent a letter to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and Secretary of State Scott Gessler asking them to investigate the Community First Foundation.
Specifically, the letter said families were upset because the charity used pictures of the victims in their efforts to drum up donations. The families contend Community First Foundation and its affiliate Giving First broke state law by failing to get their permission before using the slain victims’ photographs on a Facebook page and website that encouraged donations.
The families said they never gave the foundation written permission to use the pictures, as Colorado law requires.
A spokesperson for Community First did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.
Families have been upset with the foundation for weeks now, arguing that Community First has been slow to provide financial help to the families or even release details about how the money will be distributed.
Last week, Community First announced that Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer who worked with the victim funds set up after the Sept. 11 attacks and the Virginia Tech shootings, had been assigned to oversee the fund. Feinberg is scheduled to meet with the families this week.
So far the families of the 12 people killed and 58 injured in the July 20 attack have each received $5,000 for a total of $350,000 distributed to families.
The state attorney general’s office and the secretary of state’s office said they were reviewing the families’ letter.
Tom Teves, whose son Alex was killed in the theater attack, said he didn’t expect state officials to take action.
Gov. John Hickenlooper announced last month that mediator Ken Feinberg, who oversaw compensation for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, has agreed to oversee the distribution of remaining donations to theater victims. Feinberg planned to meet with victims and their families Thursday and Friday to gather input on protocols for dispersing remaining funds.
Lonnie Phillips, whose stepdaughter Jessica Ghawi was killed in the theater, said Feinberg wouldn’t have gotten involved if not for victims’ families speaking up about concerns about Giving First. Phillips said while not everyone may like how Feinberg decides to distribute donations, Feinberg is experienced and knowledgeable.
“Nobody’s going to be completely happy, but if we can get money dispersed to victims, that’s at least good enough for me,” he said.
Phillips said any money his family receives would be used in Ghawi’s memory to limit access to automatic weapons. “I want to spend the rest of my years fighting what happened to our daughter,” said Phillips, 68, of San Antonio.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Yep, following a great pattern that will allow the attorneys to reap the most benefit from this. It is too bad that pretty much every sad situation like this gets worse by introducing litigation. Nice job.
Hum — $5 millon divided by 70 is $71,428.57 on my calculator (not $5,000). My suggestions to the Community First folks: 1) Pay the survivors and the estates of those murdered post haste (clear the foundation of this blood money). 2) Don’t bother the AG with this (or the Governor or the POTUS). 3) Don’t shunt any of the funds to some attorney mediator. Why is this one so difficult to figure out?
You have to remember the victims own desired definition of “victim” as explained at their news conference. Because that number is not 70. They consider everyone that was in the theater that night to be a victim. And, everyone who lived in the apartment complex that was subject to so much scrutiny for a week. That number is in the 100’s. In addition, do you give the same amount of $ to the person that was treated at the hospital for bumps and bruises from being knocked over during the melee as the family who lost their sole breadwinner? I agree that Community First has not handled this well, especially the public relations portion. But it is much more complex than just cutting some checks.