Judge Clears School, Cleaning Company In Teacher's Murder

DANVERS, MA -- A Lawrence Superior Court judge dismissed wrongful death lawsuits filed against the town of Danvers and a school cleaning company filed by the family of a murdered high school teacher. A third lawsuit, against the architect of Danvers High School, remains open. Judge Jeffrey Karp said he could not find the town or the cleaning company liable for emotional distress of the family of Colleen Ritzer.

An attorney for DiNisco, the architectural firm that did not have the lawsuit against it dismissed, said the company was disappointed by the ruling.

"The video monitoring system included in our firm’s design for Danvers High School met all specifications set forth by the Town of Danvers and its Police Department, and is considered best in class for its purpose," Michael J. Stone of the Boston-based firm of Peabody & Arnold said. "As the architectural firm of record for the project, our contract was specific and exclusively limited to the design of the surveillance equipment, it did not include staffing, personnel, or monitoring of the system. At the time of the incident, the system was working as designed and the video surveillance system was an integral factor in assisting in the prosecution and conviction of the murderer."

Colleen Ritzer's parents filed the lawsuit two years ago hoping to get more answers about how their daughter was raped and killed on school property. Student Philip Chism was convicted of the October 2013 killing Ritzer, 24, of Andover. The decision was issued last week, following an August hearing on the motion to dismiss by defense attorneys.

The crime occurred just weeks after the school had installed a state-of-the-art security system that included 140 cameras. Part of the lawsuit, which names DiNisco Design Partnership and SJ Services in addition to the town as defendants, seeks to find out why no one was monitoring those cameras when Chism attacked Ritzer in a bathroom.

"Somebody monitoring the cameras would not have changed anything," Michael Stone, an attorney for DiNisco, argued during thursday's hearing according to the Salem News, which first reported this story. Karp suggested that the parties consider court-supervised mediation to bring closure to the case.

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).