Investigators were a few simple steps from obtaining a warrant to search Eric Harris' home in 1998 and perhaps head off the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, according to legal experts.

That opinion was offered by two well-known Denver attorneys who reviewed a draft of a search warrant affidavit that was released Tuesday under a judge's order.

''Some of the defects in this affidavit could have been remedied, and if remedied, I suspect some judges would have issued a search warrant, thereby eliminating the Columbine shooting,'' said Denver defense attorney Scott Robinson.

And, he later added, ''Thereby changing the course of history.''

Former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman said the affidavit may have stood as written, though, like Robinson, he believed a few small changes could have shored it up.

''I think there might have been bare bones probable cause,'' he said. ''However, if a detective brought me this affidavit while I was a prosecutor, I would have suggested more investigation be done.''

The affidavit and a summary of events that occurred April 20, 1999 in the school library - where Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 10 students, wounded a dozen others and took their own lives - were released after a court fight involving Jefferson County and the families of the victims and killers as well as CBS News.

Last Friday, District Judge Brooke Jackson ordered the Jefferson County Sheriff's office to turn over the affidavit, a summary of events in the library, audiotapes of interviews with officers who fired their guns at Columbine and four evidence notebooks.

All the items had been withheld in November, when sheriff's officials released 11,000 pages of investigative material.

The library memorandum and the draft affidavit were released Tuesday. The tapes and other materials are expected to be released in the coming days and weeks.

The families of some of the Columbine victims were seeking the information as they pursue lawsuits alleging that the sheriff's department failed to take adequate steps to prevent the tragedy.

The summary of events in the library appears to shed no new light on the sequence of events spelled out in the official report of the tragedy.

But the affidavit underscored that sheriff's investigators had a keen interest in Harris the year before he and Klebold opened fire at Columbine, killing 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounding more than 20 others. It also lent more credibility to an account of events given by Randy and Judy Brown, whose teen-age son was threatened on Harris' Web page.

For example, the affidavit showed that a sheriff's investigator met with Judy Brown - something department officials denied in 1999.

''This document proves we were there like we said we were, and they've been lying about it for 23 months,'' Randy Brown said.

It also established that investigators considered it possible that an earlier pipe bomb incident was linked to Harris.

But the affidavit raises more questions than it answers.

It's not clear, for example, why it wasn't submitted to prosecutors or a judge for review. And it's not clear why the investigation apparently ended without investigators ever talking to Harris or his parents or searching his home.

Sheriff John Stone and Assistant County Attorney Lily Oeffler did not return calls seeking comment.

District Attorney Dave Thomas also declined to comment.

The family of Daniel Rohrbough, who was killed outside the school, has alleged in a lawsuit that someone in the sheriff's department ordered that the 1998 investigation be dropped.

''The people involved in drawing this up appeared to be doing their jobs, and this was stopped by somebody above them,'' Rohrbough's father, Brian Rohrbough, said Tuesday.

Robinson and Silverman, while disagreeing on the strength of the affidavit as written, suggested many of the same changes.

Though it may seem obvious, an officer should have nailed down the fact that there was a computer in the Harris home - possibly by getting documentation through the apparent Internet server, America Online.

In what Robinson termed an ''easy'' move, investigators needed to prove that Harris lived at the house mentioned in the draft, possibly by checking motor vehicle records.

Robinson also suggested dating the Web site information to show whether it was recent, and including more Internet information where Harris talks about exploding bombs.

Among the lines not included in the draft affidavit, but part of a Jefferson County police report on Harris, was one about exploding a pipe bomb. It ''blew BIG,'' according to the Web site. One bomb he named ''Pazzie'' was ''a complete success and blew dee f--- outa a little creek bed.''

Robinson said investigators should have detailed how far from Harris' home the pipe bombs were located.

''There's no allegation the field is close by,'' he said.

It is, in fact, about 1 1/2 miles from the Harris home.

While two different reports are mentioned in the affidavit, Silverman said the Web site alone indicated two crimes: possession of pipe bombs and threats against Brooks Brown.

''Therefore, I could definitely see a judge signing off on a search warrant based on this affidavit,'' he said. ''However, it's better to include a few more, easily obtainable paragraphs making clear how you know Eric Harris lives at this address, that Eric Harris has a computer at this address.''

Randy and Judy Brown first called the sheriff's department on March 18, 1998, to report that their son, Brooks, had been threatened on Harris' Web page. Harris and Brooks Brown were friends who had a falling out. The Browns supplied a deputy with printouts from the Web page, including a passage in which Harris talked about wanting to ''kill and injure as many of you'' as he could - ''especially a few people, like Brooks Brown.''

Ten days after the bloodshed at Columbine, sheriff's officials acknowledged receiving the report from the Browns. But in that April 30, 1999, statement, officials contended that they could do little, in part because the Browns wanted to remain anonymous, because an investigator couldn't find the Web page, and because no pipe bomb reports could be ''linked'' to Harris.

In the days after Columbine, sheriff's officials openly inquired about whether Brooks Brown might have been involved in the killings. Harris had told him to go home shortly before the attack.

In December 1999, the sheriff's department acknowledged that it had no evidence to show that Brown was involved.

However, officials continued to insist that they had never met with Randy and Judy Brown in 1998.

At the time, Judy Brown told the Rocky Mountain News that her appointment calendar showed a March 31, 1998, meeting with sheriff's investigator John Hicks.

Sheriff's officials contended at the time that Hicks only spoke with the Browns on the telephone.

The draft affidavit, written by sheriff's investigator Mike Guerra, with input from a report by bomb squad member Glenn Grove, supports the Browns' version of events.

According to the affidavit, Guerra said that he spoke with Hicks on March 31, 1998, and that ''Hicks advised your affiant he met with Mrs. Judy Brown'' about Harris.

Also in the affidavit, Guerra wrote that a pipe bomb found Feb. 15, 1998, was ''consistent'' with the descriptions of explosives on Harris' Web page.

Guerra, now the school resource officer assigned to Columbine, and Grove both declined to comment.

''I believe Guerra and Grove did their job,'' Randy Brown said. ''Someone stopped this search warrant, and the questions are who and why. Were they doing a favor for the Harris family?''

Brown called for an independent examination of everything in the files of the sheriff's department ''before they shred another page.''

In a March 19 hearing, Oeffler, the assistant county attorney, acknowledged that investigators shredded a timeline of the activities of Harris and Klebold in the months leading up to the attack. She contended that the information from that timeline is contained in the department's report.

James Rouse, the attorney for some of the families suing the sheriff, said the affidavit ''certainly corroborates our story.''

He said he was astonished the draft did not evolve into a search warrant.

''You got a kid telling everybody he's building bombs, then you find a bomb that matches it,'' he said. ''I think that would do it, personally.''

INFOBOX

SEARCH WARRANT AFFIDAVIT EXCERPTS

On March 31, 1998, your affiant (Investigator Mike Guerra) met with Investigator John Hicks and Investigator Glenn Grove of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. Investigator Hicks advised your affiant he met with Mrs. Judy Brown reference Eric David Harris, a.k.a. Reb Doomer, who had been making threats on the Internet to her son, Brooks Brown. Investigator Hicks gave your affiant copies of this information, consisting of 12 pages retrieved from Eric David Harris's web site (http: / / members.aol.com / rebdoomer / index.html). Eric David Harris is known personally to Brooks Brown. Your affiant read through the information and found that Harris describes building pipe bombs using materials such as pyrotechnics powder and fuse from commercial fireworks that he had disassembled.

Harris labeled the devices as ''Atlanta'' and ''Pholus'' and describes such as being 1 1/4 inch by six inch PVC pipe. Harris describes another device, ''Peitro,'' as one inch by six inch PVC pipe and ''Pazzie'' as 3/4 inch by five inch PVC pipe . . . .

On Feb. 15, 1998, at 4 p.m. there was a report of a pipe bomb placed in the field near Garrison and Field street county of Jefferson, State of Colorado. Investigator Glenn Grove of the Jefferson County Bomb Squad was dispatched to that location. Investigator Grove arrived, located and rendered the device safe. Investigator Grove described the device as a 1 1/4 inch by six to eight inch PVC pipe . . . consistent with material found in the type of commercial fireworks Harris described as components of his explosive devices.

The size is consistent with the devices labeled by Harris as ''Atlanta'' and ''Pholus'' . . .

Based on the aforementioned information your affiant respectfully requests the court issue a search warrant for the residence located at (Harris' S. Reed St. address), County of Jefferson, State of Colorado.

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