james holmes
© unknownJames Holmes
The University of Colorado has hired a former U.S. attorney to review procedures and actions taken by the university and its employees in relation to former student James Eagan Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 58 others at an Aurora movie theater.

Robert N. Miller and his team began the investigation last week, according to a news release from the university.

According to court records, in the months before the July 20 shootings, Holmes, 24, was seeing CU Denver psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton.

Fenton, medical director of student mental-health services at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, was so alarmed by Holmes' behavior that she notified a campuswide threat-assessment team.

But Holmes withdrew from a Ph.D. program in neurosciences and turned in his student-access card around June 10, and no further action was taken.

When or whether Holmes stopped receiving health-care services remains unclear.

Fenton's attorney, Richard Murray, said he could not comment on the hiring of Miller.

CU Denver Chancellor Donald Elliman and Lilly Marks, executive vice chancellor for the Anschutz Medical Campus, requested the internal review.

"We are doing everything we can to understand how the university's systems and processes functioned in this situation," CU president Bruce Benson said in a statement.

The review will be presented to the Board of Regents. The university will then determine what - if any - elements of the report may be made public under health- care and academic privacy laws.

A similar investigation conducted by Jefferson County Public Schools following the April 20, 1999, shooting at Columbine High School was never publicly released. It remains protected by attorney-client privilege.