Monday, May 27, 2013

Class Action to Stop Collection of Illegal $50 Fee for Criminal Background Checks

A Complaint has been served in the Superior Court seeking damages and injunctive relief to stop the state police from using municipal police chiefs and elected officials to collect a $50 fee for  state police criminal history records checks that municipalities by state statute are entitled to at no cost.

Court documents: 
  1. Complaint and Action for Injunctive Relief;
  2. Return of Service; and
  3. Confirmation of Filing at Superior Court in Litchfield
News Release issued by CT Carry, Inc.: News Release

Email regarding $50 Fee sent to Public Safety and Security Committee Members: 
May 29, 2013, Email to Legislators

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

An Act Concerning Fees for Searches of Accident and Investigative Reports (sHB-6424)


The amendments to section 29-10b proposed by the Department of Emergency Services and  Public Protection (DESPP) are a direct result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) complaint filed by American News in 2010. In 2011 the Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) ruled in favor of American News finding that section 29-10b did not authorize DESPP to charge fees for records/accident reports obtained pursuant to requests for inspection and not for copies. The DESPP appealed the FOIC decision to the superior court and in 2012 the superior court held in favor of the FOIC and American News and against DESPP.

The purpose of the 2010 request by American News was to determine if state police officers failed to properly investigate two, late-night/early morning, one-car accidents involving a Suffield Police Department officer and covered-up the fact that the police officer left the scene of both accidents. See link to 01/01/2006 Somers accident and link to 05/09/2009 Somers accident. 

The same police officer involved in the January 1, 2006, and May 9, 2009, Somers one-car accidents was involved in a one-car accident in Enfield on February 28, 2005. See link to 02/28/2005 Enfield accident. 

As recorded by DESPP TFC Timothy Begley in his accident report dated January 1, 2006: Just hours after midnight New Year’s Eve, January 1, 2006, at 0325, a Suffield police officer, Sgt. Thomas G. Van Tasel, struck CL&P pole #434 in a one-car motor vehicle accident on Route 190 in Somers. TFC Begley concluded that Sgt. Van Tasel lost control of his motor vehicle. TFC Begley then issued a written warning to Sgt. Van Tasel for traveling too fast for conditions. Within his report, TFC Begley does not recount at what location he spoke to Sgt. Van Tasel or whether Sgt. Van Tasel was at the scene of the accident when TFC Begley arrived. The report is vague regarding Sgt. Van Tasel’s locations and activities following the accident.

As reported by DESPP TPR Charles M. Lavoie in his accident report dated May 9, 2009: Just hours after midnight, on May 9, 2009, at 0349, Sgt. Van Tasel struck CL&P pole #960 in a one-car motor vehicle accident on Hall Hill Road in Somers. TPR Lavoie issued a written warning to Sgt. Van Tasel for making an improper right turn. Within his report, TPR Lavoie does not recount at what location he spoke to Sgt. Van Tasel or whether Sgt. Van Tasel was at the scene of the accident when TPR Lavoie arrived. The report is vague regarding Sgt. Van Tasel’s locations and activities following the accident.

It was determined in the course of American News’ investigation that Sgt. Van Tasel was not at the scene of either the January 1, 2006, or the May 9, 2009, accidents when the state police arrrived. The state police reports do not reflect that Sgt. Van Tasel left the scenes of the accidents prior to their arrivals.

American News’ intent and purpose in the 2010 FOIA request submitted to the DESPP was to review the totality of the accident reports prepared and submitted by TFC Begley and TPR Lavoie as investigating officers during their careers as state police officers in order to determine whether all of their accident reports are so vague in referencing at what location the troopers first observed the motor vehicle operator upon arrival at the scene of an accident; where and when in the course of the investigation the motor vehicle operator was spoken to by the troopers; and at what time and through what transport the motor vehicle operator left the scene of the accident.

As represented to the FOIC and the superior court by American News in seeking the records: In general and not specifically related to Sgt. Van Tasel or the FOIA request, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges are well-aware that leaving the scene of an accident, especially when there are no witnesses, is a successful means of avoiding a driving-under-the-influence charge. Once an individual flees the scene of an accident, the state often cannot prove that the operator was under the influence of alcohol at the time he was driving because even if a blood-alcohol test is administered the operator may claim that he or she consumed alcohol after the accident after leaving the scene due to nervousness, anxiety, or otherwise. Of course, in these kinds of cases, charging the operator with evading the scene of an accident is warranted. The reports prepared by TFC Begley and TPC Lavoie are vague regarding Sgt. Van Tasel’s location following the separate early morning one-car accidents involving utility poles, and the request for the reports was the first step in resolving the question of Sgt. Van Tasel’s location when interviewed by the state police on January 1, 2006, and May 9, 2009. 

In testimony offered by DESPP Commissioner Reuben F. Bradford to the Public Safety and Security Committee he focused on money not on public safety. The impact on public safety of taking away the important functions of civilian oversight, media access, and the accountability oversight and media access impose on law enforcement cannot be quantified in a open and free society. The intended or unintended consequence of sHB-6424 will be, if passed, an effective prohibition on civilian oversight of law enforcement conduct.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Board of Firearms Permit Examiners Channel 3 News I-Team Segment

The Channel 3 News I-Team aired a segment on April 29, 2013, looking at the role and operation of the Board of Firearms Permit Examiners which included commentary by South Windsor Police Department Chief Reed and Attorney Baird:

"Local police depts. want more say with issuing permits," WFSB Channel 3 Hartford, I-Team Chief Investigative Reporter Eric Parker,  April 29, 2013 (WFSB Link to Report).

 




Tuesday, April 30, 2013

State Police Training Bulletin on Open Carry

American News obtained State Police Training Academy Bulletin # 2013-001 on April 29, 2013, which states:

"State Police personnel should NOT arrest a properly permitted individual merely for publically carrying a hand gun or firearm in plain view absent exigent circumstances."

The full text of the Bulletin may be found here: State Police Training Academy Bulletin # 2013-001.

American News requested and received the Bulletin pursuant to the state Freedom of Information Act.

See also Press Releases, "Connecticut State Police Finally Admit Open Carry is Lawful" at http://ctcarry.com/News/Releases.
 







Monday, April 15, 2013

San Diego First Amendment Case - Amended Complaint Filed

In American News and Information Services, Inc. v. Gore   ("American News") the Plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint today alleging that the San Diego County Sheriff's Department uses government-issued press credentials to deny disfavored members of the media access to public information. Link to article by Ken Stone at the RamonaPatch:  "Ramona Journalist Claims 'Retaliatory Animus' in First Amendment Lawsuit."
 
The Amended Complaint at paragraph 192 includes these comments made by San Diego County Sheriff's Department Public Affairs Director Jan Caldwell, a Defendant in the American News lawsuit, at a Society of Professional Journalists meeting about access to public information:  [Link to Video]

Um first of all and my first point I want to make is be nice to me, I mean seriously be nice to me because I’m a mirror and I will reflect how you treat me.  If you are rude, if you are obnoxious, if you are demanding, if you call me a liar, I will probably not talk to you anymore.

“And there’s only one Sheriff’s Department in town and you can go talk to all the deputies all you want, but there’s one PIO [Public Information Officer], just be nice to me. If you’re nice to me and when I say I’m sorry I don’t know the answer to that but I’m sorry I can’t talk about that, I’m not lying, I’m not lying to you.  Thirty Two years with the FBI, six years with the Sheriff’s Department I believe I have Integrity, because if you don’t have integrity you don’t have a good soul, then you have nothing. That’s my soapbox on that.

“Now we’re getting into a whole other area with regard to the, and this may be a panel for next year, journalism credentials and who should have them and should we have them and I would al… I’m gonna throw that back on you all in a minute to find out what you think.”

“Because you can sit with your Apple laptop in your fuzzy slippers, you can be eight hundred pounds, a disabled man who can’t get out of bed and be a journalist, because you can blog something.

“Does that give you the right because you blog in your fuzzy slippers out of your bedroom, and you don’t go out, and you haven’t gotten that degree?  Should you be called a journalist or should you be like Pauline ??? who graduated from Journalism school and has been doing a long time or J.W or Dennis I mean are you on the same par?

“In my estimation, and I’d like to hear from Darren and Michael on that no, because Pauline and J.W. and Matt and the others that have been doing this a long time know the questions to ask, as will you. But if you’re sitting at home on your laptop and you’re blogging and you just want to get under my skin for your city beat, I love that then yea, so I drop that out on you all what do you think about that?”

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Fall 2013 Course Announcement - 2nd Amendment Rights and Gun Control

Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Winsted has scheduled the following course offering, to be instructed by Attorney Rachel M. Baird:

CJS 298 71 Special Topics: 2nd Amendment Rights and Gun Control

This one-credit course explores the raging battle over the Second Amendment from our state legislature to the United States Supreme Court. Do guns still have a place in our society or is it time to abolish the Second Amendment? Are guns the people’s protection and insurance against government tyranny, a last resort to self-defense? Students will gain a foundation to answer these questions in a course that ranges from an examination of Connecticut firearms laws, upcoming legislative decisions, the role of the courts, and the impact of the media on public opinion.

Course dates:  Friday & Saturday, September 20 & 21, 2013

Monday, April 1, 2013

2013 Freedom of Information Commission Annual Conference

The Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) will hold its Annual Conference this Tuesday, April 9th, at The Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station in Haddam. Sponsored by the FOIC, the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government, and the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, the scheduled Featured Topic is:

Does Government Transparency Enhance our Safety and Security?

The invited Panelists are:
Attorney Rachel M. Baird, Michael Lawlor (Under Secretary, State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management, Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division), Matthew Reed (Chief of Police, Town of South Windsor), and James H. Smith (New Britain Herald and Bristol Press)

The Discussion will be moderated by Steven Kalb, Adjunct Professor, Broadcast Journalism, UCONN Storrs.

For further information, see Brochure.