Judge: Keep data secret on gunman
Posted on Wednesday, November 12, 2008
JONESBORO — A videotaped deposition of Andrew Golden, one of the two boys who killed four students and a teacher at a Jonesboro middle school in 1998, will be released only after a civil lawsuit has been tried, a judge has ruled.
Circuit Court Judge David Burnett ordered lawyers not to disclose the site, date or time of Golden’s deposition for the lawsuit. Burnett also ordered lawyers not to give out the new name Golden lives under, his address, workplace or the name of the school he attends.
His mother said Golden took the name after being released from federal prison.
“Andrew Golden ceased to exist when he changed his name,” Pat Golden testified at a hearing Monday. Pat Golden went on to say her son lives alone and attends a school but did not offer any other personal details.
Golden and Mitchell Johnson are named in a civil suit filed on behalf of the victims’ relatives to stop the two from profiting from the slayings. Jonesboro lawyer Bobby McDaniel previously has questioned Johnson, who put much of the blame for the shooting on Golden.
The tape of Johnson’s deposition was released publicly without complaint. After being served, lawyers representing Golden filed a motion seeking to keep the deposition sealed from public view.
During the hearing, Pat Golden said she had heard that Johnson claimed her son urged him into the shooting. Pat Golden said her son told her he was not the leader.
After the hearing, McDaniel told reporters he still thought information about where Golden lives and what he does should be public information.
“I think the public has a right to know if a mass murderer is living right next door, or dating their daughter or working for them,” McDaniel said.
In 1998, Johnson, then 13, and Golden, then 11, shot at students and teachers at Jonesboro Westside Middle School after Golden pulled a fire alarm. The boys killed English teacher Shannon Wright and students Natalie Brooks, 11; Paige Herring, 12; Stephanie Johnson, 12; and Britthney Varner, 11. They wounded 10 others.
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