Testimony began Tuesday in a civil case against Cinemark, the company that owns the Century 16 theater in Aurora where 12 people died and dozens were injured in 2012.
More than two dozen Aurora theater shooting survivors are suing the company, saying Cinemark failed to stop the attack.
A woman who was in the theater at the time of the shooting is representing herself in the civil case. Court staff told 9NEWS that Gloria Pester’s attorney was disbarred at some point prior to the start of these proceedings, and she chose to represent herself.
Pester and her two sons and a friend were in theater 16 the night of the shooting. All of the deaths and injuries as a result of the attack happened in theaters 8 and 9.
A judge allowed Pester to sit with plaintiff’s council and call witnesses, including her sons. Pester is also expected to take the stand as a witness.
It doesn’t appear Pester has any prior legal experience.
Twelve people died and 70 were injured in the July 20, 2012 tragedy. The lone gunman bought a ticket to The Dark Knight Rises, sat down for the start of the movie, then propped open the back door, went to his car parked in the back of the theater building, got dressed in armor, went back inside the theater and started shooting inside theater 9. Some gunshots went through the wall and injured people sitting in theater 8.
Many wounded victims and the families of those killed are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Cinemark.
The shooter was convicted of multiple counts of murder and is currently serving many consecutive life sentences in an undisclosed out-of-state prison.
Marc Bern, an attorney representing Aurora theater survivors, says Cinemark failed to provide closed circuit TV around the perimeter of the theater. If CCTV was installed, Bern contends, then theater staff would have noticed the shooter studying the theater days before. Bern also said Cinemark should have had armed guards the night of the shooting, as well as silent alarms that would have alerted the staff that the back door was propped open.
Kevin Taylor, attorney for Cinemark, said the shooting was an “unpreventable, unstoppable event.”
Taylor said Cinemark spent $180,000 on one report looking at the state of crime in Aurora at the time of the shooting. It will be presented later at trial.
“Policies and procedures were appropriate for the industry, no other theater [was] using silent alarms or cameras,” Taylor said in his opening statement.
“We humbly submit to you this horrible tragedy which occurred is simply not the fault of Cinemark,” Taylor said in closing his opening statements.
Six jurors and one alternate will decide the case after two weeks of testimony.
Until today, there were two alternates. But one juror was dismissed this morning after she had a child care conflict.
