It has been over four years since James Holmes walked into a Cinemark theater in Aurora, Colorado where he shot and killed 12 people and injured 70 others while they watched The Dark Knight Arises. It was speculated that Holmes chose that very movie theater because it doesn’t allow guns inside, leaving visitors open to attack since there is barely any security on weeknights. As if the victims and their families haven’t suffered enough, they are now ordered to pay back $700,000 in legal fees after their lawsuit against the theater failed.
Cinemark’s lawyers, who made the payment request in June this year, claim that they need the funds in order to cover the costs of preserving evidence, retrieving and copying records, travel and other expenses which includes $500,000 used for experts to testify on their behalf. The judge apparently pleaded with the victims to settle for $150,000, but one victim who was paralyzed and had lost a daughter her daughter in the shooting would not comply.
The basis of the 28 families’ lawsuit was that the theater had no alarms on the emergency exit, which Holmes used to enter the theater, and that the establishment lacked adequate security. Lawyers said that the Cinemark Theater had “primary responsibility” in the attack that took place. Cinemark argued that they could not have possibly anticipated that the incident would occur and therefore could not be held responsible. Since it was a weeknight, security is more lax since it is a low crime area. They also detailed that guards who were on duty may have had difficulty getting to the theater because so many people were fleeing in the opposite direction.
James Holmes copped out to an is currently serving a life sentence with an additional 3,200 years. Let’s chat below.
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Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3768375/amp/Survivors-Aurora-shooting-massacre-ordered-pay-theater-chain-700-000-fees.html
