Alleged Batman shooter’s school records withheld

James Holmes (AP Photo/Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office)

Aurora, Colorado – A US judge has issued a rare order preventing the University of Colorado Denver from releasing records about suspected Aurora cinema shooter James Holmes.

Much speculation surrounding the 24-year-old’s possible motive in gunning down 12 people and wounding 58 more at a screening of Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises,” has focused on his time studying neuroscience at the school.

School documents are usually available under the Colorado Open Records Act, but District Court Judge William Silvester cited a provision that bars the public from viewing open records “prohibited by… the order of any court.”

His order was signed on Monday but released Thursday.

University officials said Holmes was in the process of withdrawing from the graduate program, but had not completed the necessary paperwork.

At the request of Holmes’s attorneys, Silvester also reinforced an earlier order barring officials of the district attorney’s office and law enforcement officials from releasing information about the case before the trial.

Holmes is being held in solitary confinement at Arapahoe County Detention Center.

He could face the death penalty if convicted, though Colorado has only executed one person since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.