Andy Thibault's Blog, page 33
September 21, 2014
Look Who’s Reading ‘more COOL JUSTICE’
Norwich, CT artist Merrill Park Keeley attended Paier Art School in Hamden and had lessons with Foster Caddell during summer vacations while in high school. While working as a commercial artist she created illustrations for several local business publications. She likes to work with oils, watercolors, and frescoes, and has done many portraits. Her oil on canvas is entitled 'Tapestry.'
'more COOL JUSTICE’ bash w/ LIVE JAZZ 10-10-14
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September 20, 2014
[Books on the shelf now] Hickory Stick Bookshop announces ‘more COOL JUSTICE’ bash w/ LIVE JAZZ
Author Signing with Andy Thibault - more COOL JUSTICEEvent date:
Friday, October 10, 2014 - 6:30pm
Event address:
2 Green Hill Road
Washington Depot, CT 06794
Join us at 6:30 for an evening of music followed by a reading, discussion, and booksigning with Andy Thibault author of more COOL JUSTICE, a second collection of hard-hitting essays credited with helping to free a woman unjustly convicted of first degree murder. And more music! Complete post at Hickory Stick
More details and background, including musician bios
Book Lover’s Paradise, Hickory Stick in Washington, Continues to Thrive
more COOL JUSTICE website
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September 19, 2014
more COOL JUSTICE print edition @amazon and direct from publisher – signing Oct. 10, Hickory Stick Bookshop
ANNOUNCEMENT:
MICHAEL J. LONDON & ASSOCIATES
929 White Plains Rd., #330, Trumbull, Conn. 06611
www.mjlondon.com
Connecticut: 203-261-1549
Florida: 561-272-2603
Mobile: 203-556-5123
OLD SCHOOL MUCKRAKER: NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE
EDITOR, BOXING JUDGE,
[former] FOI COMMISSIONER & PRIVATE EYE
WESTPORT, Conn., Sept. 18, 2014 – Renaissance man Andy Thibault has a new book of witty, biting, on-the-mark columns, more COOL JUSTICE http://morecooljustice.com/.
The just-published book from Westport-based Icebox Publishing is available on Amazon as well as in bookstores internationally. more COOL JUSTICE includes controversial essays on such topics as the Woody Allen sex assault case, the national assault on freedom of information, a 40-year-old cold case in New Orleans, and the freeing of a woman unjustly convicted of premeditated murder. A chapter entitled ‘Persons known & unknown blew up justice in Badaracco case’ examines the politics permeating the investigation and judicial system’s handling of the Mary Badaracco homicide in northwest Connecticut. A book signing has been scheduled Friday, Oct. 10, at the Hickory Stick Bookshop http://www.hickorystickbookshop.com/, Washington Depot, CT. Reception is at 6:30 p.m., featuring acclaimed jazz musicians Kris and Jen Allen.
Praising more COOL JUSTICE, Wally Lamb, the New York Times best-selling author, said: “Andy Thibault is a junkyard dog for justice who bares his teeth at pomposity and institutional unfairness and only bites the truly deserving.” Fellow New York Times best-selling author Luanne Rice, said: “This volume collects some of [Thibault’s] most lively and insightful pieces – Excellent reporting, a real pleasure to read.” “Andy Thibault brings a wealth of credibility to IceBox Publishing and we are thrilled to showcase his talent as one of our authors,” said L. Todd Wood, principal of IceBox Publishing. “IceBox looks to much more from Andy in the years to come.”
Thibault’s first book, “Law and Justice in Everyday Life,” published in 2002, was critically acclaimed, featuring an introduction by Howard Zinn and foreword by F. Lee Bailey. He and Charles Johnson co-authored “The 12-Minute MBA for Lawyers,” published in 2002 by Law Tribune Books, and “The 12-Minute MBA for Doctors, 2001. Thibault also wrote and edited “The History of the Connecticut State Police,” 2004.
Thibault, a Litchfield resident, began writing for pay at age 17 in 1970 for the sports departments of The Groton News and The Norwich Bulletin. He went from sports writing to general reporting and editing for newspapers including The Bulletin, Shore Line Newspapers, The Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Times Leader, The Stamford Advocate, Greenwich Time, The Hartford Courant, The Torrington Register Citizen, The Washington Times, Connecticut Post and The Connecticut Commercial Record. He was a columnist for The Connecticut Law Tribune from 2000 – 2006 before taking time off to successfully battle colon cancer.
His work has appeared in Connecticut Magazine and Northeast Magazine, and, among others, Page Six of the New York Post. Most recently Thibault was a contributing editor and columnist for Digital First Media Connecticut Group, which includes The New Haven Register, Connecticut Magazine, The Register Citizen, Middletown Press, Litchfield County Times and West Hartford News.
Thibault reported extensively on police brutality in Hartford, the Young & Rubicam “Come Back to Jamaica” kickback scandal, the Russian Mob in Brooklyn, NY, the Independent Counsel investigation of the late U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, the cover-up of a hit-and-run death in New London, Conn., and the 1996 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. Thibault also has worked as a private investigator for law firms in Connecticut, New York, California and Washington, D.C., and as a professional boxing judge. His public service includes commissioner for the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, board member for the Litchfield Board of Education, the Oliver Wolcott Library, the former Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and chairman of the Connecticut Boxing Promotion Commission.
He is chairman emeritus of the Connecticut Young Writers Trust, a foundation that has affirmed the work of more than 8,000 teen-age poets and writers and awarded more than $215,000 in prize money. He served as a mentor in the writing program at Western Connecticut State University and as an adjunct professor for the English and Writing departments. He also taught writing, journalism and public speaking at the University of Hartford and blogging at Northwestern Connecticut Community College.
Thibault was a political science major at Boston University studying with Howard Zinn. He served as an editor and reporter for the off-campus, 17,000- circulation independent weekly, The News.
Earlier this year, Thibault was honored by the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information with the Stephen Collins Award http://connecticutnewsroom.wordpress.... for his “many contributions to the cause of open and accountable government and a free and vigorous press.”
###
Affirming that public records belong to the people
Hickory Stick Bookshop
IceBox Publishing
more COOL JUSTICE print edition via Amazon
more COOL JUSTICE website
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Hickory Stick reception jazz combo:
- About Jen Allen:
Allen has performed alongside many jazz greats including Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, Dezron Douglas, Charles Flores and Kris Allen. She has performed world wide with many groups including Kendrick Oliver’s New Life Orchestra, the collaborative New Unity Quartet and other jazz and creative music ensembles.
Allen has taught at The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartt School, University of Connecticut Community School of the Arts Jazz Camp and Trinity College.
Originally from Foxboro, Ma, Allen was a cellist who started playing jazz piano as a favor to her high school band director, little knowing that she was finding her true artistic voice. From there she pursued her Bachelors in Music performance at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz. Allen has been privileged to be able to study under Jackie McLean, Steve Davis, Andy LaVerne and Garry Dial.
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Kris Allen, Alto Saxophone
-- Saxophonist and composer Kris Allen was a young protege of the great Jackie McLean, with whom he studied at the Artists Collective and the University of Hartford. He went on to perform and/or record with jazz legends such as Illinois Jacquet, Gerald Wilson, and Curtis Fuller, as well as with modern starts such as Winard Harper, Andy Laverne, Mario Pavone and the Mingus Dynasty. Kris can be found appearing as the leader of his own quintet, in duo with percussionist Rogerio Boccato, and as both saxophonist and artistic director of the Hartford Jazz Society New Directions Ensemble. He is also very involved with education, as a part time faculty member of The Hartt School, Trinity College, and the Greater Hartford Academy of the Performing Arts. Kris has also been been a teaching artist with the Litchfield Jazz Festival since 2001.Cool Justice Blog
September 16, 2014
'Jane Doe's running away this morning from Department of Children and Families custody was not surprising'
Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance Statement
on Jane Doe / September 16, 2014
Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance
Contact: Colleen Shaddox
colleen@qsilver.com
Jane Doe's running away this morning from Department of Children and Families custody was not surprising.
Jane, a transgender girl who is being held in isolation at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, a boys’ prison, allegedly ran away when she was taken outside CJTS for treatment.
For the past seven months, Jane has been either at CJTS, a boys' prison; the Pueblo Unit, a girls' prison so troubled that the Office of the Child Advocate has reported suspected child abuse there; or York Correctional Institution, a women's prison. Most of that time, she was in isolation if not outright solitary confinement. Isolation is psychologically harmful, particularly for adolescents. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychologists issued a statement in 2012 saying that solitary confinement was inappropriate for children because it put them at risk of depression, anxiety and even psychosis. The conditions of Jane's confinement are harmful, and she fled that harm. Today was the first time in more than seven months DCF allowed her to briefly leave a locked facility so that she could receive treatment in the community. Jane understood that the respite would be brief, as DCF's treatment plan is for her to continue to live in isolation in a boys' prison. She will leave three times a week for therapy. Services for this deeply traumatized 16-year-old have been insufficient and uncoordinated.
Jane has been known to the child welfare system most of her life. It repeatedly failed to protect her and then punished her for its own failure. Girls frequently go AWOL from DCF custody. Jane is one of three girls recently held at Pueblo to run away from DCF placements, according to news reports. Jane is the only child we know of whose running away prompted DCF to release a news bulletin. We submit the issue is not primarily Jane. It is the state system itself. Other states treat high-risk children in the community effectively and safety. These jurisdictions hold young people accountable for their actions while addressing the significant traumas they have suffered in their lives. States do this without incarceration, but through highly individualized planning and connections to caring adults. This is what Jane Doe and all DCF children need and deserve.
All of us who have been working on Jane's behalf regret that after many months she is still being treated primarily as a criminal instead of a child in extreme need. Today's events underline the urgency of this work. Rather than use her actions as an excuse to further stigmatize and punish Jane, we hope the state will see it as what it was -- a desperate attempt by a young person who is not getting the help she needs. We renew our call for DCF to consult outside experts to develop an appropriate plan of treatment specific to Jane’s needs.
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September 10, 2014
'Civics First Night On Constitution Day' RSVP deadline extended to Friday, 9-12-14
ANNOUNCEMENT
On Constitution Day, September 17, 2014, CIVICS FIRST, a private, non-profit association that promotes and conducts law-related education programs and projects in Connecticut's public and private schools, courtrooms and communities, will hold its first CIVICS FIRST NIGHT ON CONSTITUTION DAY at the GOVERNOR’S RESIDENCE, located at 990 Prospect Ave, Hartford, Connecticut.
We will honor our many volunteers who have given selflessly of their time and energy to judge our competitions and coach our student participants.
The suggested donation is $50.00 per person, which should be mailed to CIVICS FIRST, 136 Main Street Suite 301, New Britain, CT 06051. All proceeds from this event will support our programs, which include the annual middle school and high school Mock Trial and Debate Competitions, the annual “We The People" competition, and our Forensic Competition.
For further information, please contact our executive director, Beth DeLuco, at (860) 357-5300 or info@civicsfirstct.org
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September 9, 2014
Filmmaker who wrote prologue for 'more COOL JUSTICE' has new Russell Brand documentary
Ondi Timoner of Interloper films at Bonnie Foreshaw clemency hearing, Oct. 9, 2013
- BOB THIESFIELD photo
BrandTheFilmRussell Brand Documentary to Explore Social Media, Political Activism
Ondi Timoner, Yale ’94, runs Interloper Films, based in Pasadena, CA.
Interloper Films, current projects
Excerpt, Prologue, 'more COOL JUSTICE'
By ONDI TIMONER
Andy Thibault, aka Cool Justice, is as close as we have to a modern-day revolutionary muckraker.
Andy takes up the impossible and makes it possible through dogged determination and by seeing no boundaries when it comes to upholding the justice we all deserve.
I met him 20 years after I’d made the film, “The Nature of the Beast,” about the life and case of Bonnie Jean Foreshaw. Upon being unjustly convicted of the premeditated murder of a person she had never met, Bonnie began serving what was then the longest sentence handed down against a woman in the state of Connecticut.
Andy contacted me to ask if he could get a bunch of copies of myfilm to begin an enlightenment campaign on the state government to pardon Bonnie, who had been locked up for 27 years. Foreshaw had become a convenient stepping stone for cops and prosecutors when she shot – in self defense – a strange man who was pursuing her.
The man testified to pulling a pregnant woman in front of him and using her as a human shield. When the woman died, Bonnie was charged with double murder, and railroaded into prison to serve a virtual life sentence of 45 years through a series of jaw-dropping miscarriages of justice.
I was sure my film would force the powers-that-be to release Bonnie back in 1994, but the film went on PBS and nothing happened ...
more COOL JUSTICE website
Flashback: '05 video Bonnie Foreshaw Must Go Free
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September 3, 2014
Klau, Thibault / Avilucea #FOIA perspectives play out at more daily papers / Point-counterpoint: Systemic looting of the public’s right to know, CT style
click on images
for better viewing
Journal Inquirer: You might need a lawyer these days at FOI Commission
Register Citizen: Connecticut FOI Commission did its job at hearing
Via Appealingly Brief:
8 Comments on “Andy Thibault’s Well Intentioned, But Misguided, FOI Op-Ed” posted at bottom ...
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Background on CT State Police cover-up of shooting: ‘Let the Petitioner Beware’
PATTERN, PRACTICE POLICY: Ch. 6 #moreCOOLJUSTICE Stealing democracy – The assault on FOI
Klau blog: Appealingly Brief
CT Council on Freedom of Information
'Appealingly Brief' comments:
1. andy thibault
August 21, 2014 at 7:54 pm
The esteemed lawyer Dan Klau offers professional and reasoned criticism of our beef with the Connecticut State Police bosses, the attorney general and the Freedom of Information Commission.
Trouble is, he misses the boat, as only a lawyer could.
Klau states that hearing officer Matthew Streeter sustained most of the objections raised by Asst. Atty. Gen. Terrence O’Neill. A review of the record shows virtually all of the objections by the “people’s lawyer” were sustained.
Why should a citizen have to hire a top-gun lawyer to chew up the likes of Streeter and O’Neill? We could have brought in any number of lawyers who would have shut them both up effortlessly. But, to what end? Certainly not justice.
A hearing officer, even an assistant attorney general, must indeed do justice.
Streeter and O’Neill both failed miserably in this regard.
Streeter did indeed suppress evidence that normally and customarily would have been admitted. This includes the smoking gun police report written the night of the incident. As we note in the op-ed, O’Neill knew this document was true and authentic when he conferred with State Police Lt. Paul Vance.
Klau cites a recent state Supreme Court decision that – from the day it was issued – enabled state police to hide even more public records. That is a matter for Klau and other like-minded citizens to rectify. This decision, however, was not in effect last November when the state police broke the FOI law by withholding readily-available documents.
More to the point, in this era of Sandy Hook and Ferguson, what do the Connecticut State Police have to say about earning the public trust?
Vance has absolutely nothing to say. He seemed to act as if we were talking Martian when we asked him if state police have a duty to earn the public trust by producing public records promptly.
Shockingly, Vance articulated a rigged system in which he provides virtually no public information, yet he is paid a huge salary as a public information officer.
Try to get a public record from Vance. He’ll send you right away to the lawyers. They’ll take four months to produce a document that is readily-available on the spot. Maybe they’ll delete a date of birth or two.
Legal relevance is in the eye of the hearing officer or judge. As Klau knows, these public servants have incredibly wide latitude in administering the law.
Streeter erred by suppressing the two documents we presented and by empowering O’Neill to shut down our case at every turn.
That’s not justice. That’s not the FOI law. That’s not public service.
As Klau noted, I bring some experience and knowledge to the table in this regard as a former FOI commissioner.
Andy Thibault
http://morecooljustice.com/
http://www.cooljustice.blogspot.com/
7:45 p.m., of Aug. 20, 2014
Reply
Dan Klau
August 22, 2014 at 10:56 am
Andy, thanks for taking the time to respond to my post. I have a few thoughts in response. I’ll try not to miss the boat this time, although I think that may be difficult. In reading your response, it seems to me that our differences correlate with our respective lay person/attorney statuses. In particular, your comments reflect a notion of what the law “should be,” whereas I’m focused on what the law “is.”
Let me begin by stating that I generally agree with you on what the law should be. The State Police should release complete police reports immediately, without redactions, unless they have a persuasive argument that doing so would prejudice a prospective law enforcement action, reveal the identity of a confidential information, or release other information exempt under General Statutes section 1-210(b)(3), otherwise known as the “law enforcement” exemption of the FOIA. I’d also like to take this opportunity to remind the State Police, indeed all law enforcement officers in Connecticut, that just because the Freedom of Information Act may not require you to produce a document in certain instances, that does not mean it forbids you to do so.
In fact, the Office of the Attorney General issued a formal written opinion in 2005 that reminded state agencies that, “[u]nder the FOIA, exemptions are permissive, not mandatory. Public agencies, therefore, retain the right to determine whether and when to assert an exemption, depending on policy determinations of the need for confidentiality.” See Office of the Attorney General, Opinion No. 2005-026, 2005 WL 4258776 (Conn. A.G. Oct. 14, 2005). In short, an agency may release information even if it is not required to.
Unfortunately, as much as I share your view of what the law should be, and look forward to continuing to work with you to make our government more open and transparent, I know that the law in this particular case is not what you would like it to be. Contrary to your view, legal relevancy is not in the eyes of the beholder. That is not to say that people never disagree on questions of relevancy. But not all cases are close calls.
You argue that the recent Connecticut Supreme Court decision I mentioned in my post only established “what the law is” (my quotes) as of the date of the release of the decision. Therefore, you argue that the law as it existed at the time you made the request for the police report required the police to release the report immediately. That argument raises an interesting question about the “retroactive effect” of a judicial decision. I can’t discuss the law of retroactivity in detail in this reply, but I can say that your argument is incorrect. Thus, the hearing officer in your case was justified in relying on the recent Supreme Court decision as setting forth the controlling law in your case. I know that may seem very unfair. Perhaps it is. But it is legally correct.
So, at the end of the day, I still understand your frustration with the hearing. My main point is this: The FOIC is bound to follow the law. If you don’t like the law, the answer is not to get upset with the FOIC. The answer is to persuade enough legislators to change the law.
Reply
2. andy thibault
August 22, 2014 at 2:16 pm
Dan, your condescending tripe in paragraph one scores no points. You lose Round 2 by a self-inflicted knockdown. In professional scoring, that’s a 10-8 round for me – if you make it off the canvas. I’ll assert my expertise here as a professional boxing judge.
In this matter, I do not need you to tell me what the law is. I know that the law is.
I was taught decades ago to eat lawyers’ bones for breakfast. I do not defer to your alleged expertise, training, position or intellect. Rather than the hokum you assert as an “officer of the court,” my comments are based on my real life experience as a hearing officer and as a professional detector of bullshit.
You sound like someone who is running for judge. Your deference to institutions and their flunkeys is disheartening at best.
You make a good point that law enforcement would do well to come clean with public records, even when they think they don’t have to. Prudent leaders in law enforcement do this to build public trust because they actually believe in public service.
So, the AG put out a memo to this effect. Big freakin’ deal. I watch what the AG does, not just what he says. He routinely assigns overpaid hacks – without due diligence – to hide public information for state agencies. In this regard, we can all see how the government class protects itself while paying lip service to citizens during election season.
Your specious claim that legal relevance is not in the eye of the beholder is comic at best. I guess you have never seen a judge or hearing officer act arbitrarily or capriciously or in violation of U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
Lt. Vance and other state police officials violated the FOI law multiple times beginning last November in this case. During the hearing, Vance displayed shocking ignorance of his duty to the public trust. He admitted, that as a highly-paid “public information officer,” he provides virtually no public information. Instead, he just sends citizens to the black hole of the legal department. These “police state” practices cannot be tolerated in a free society. Moreover, they do great harm to the good rank and file troopers who perform public service every day by eroding public trust and engendering disrespect for law enforcement.
At the end of the day, go contemplate something before trying to tell me or anyone else what to do or what to get upset about. You missed the boat again, maybe as you sort of admit, because you have the vision handicap of being a lawyer.
It’s not only the law, it’s also the process. The FOI Commission used to be a place where a lay person could make a complaint and not get jerked around by lawyers.
I’m putting it back on you to show you are serious with action to correct the abuses of FOI by public servants including cops, prosecutors, judges and legislators. Don’t rely on the all-too-often mythical “administration of justice” to protect our right to know when the government and courts screw people slowly, like a knife in the back, inexorably destroying all our civil rights.
Those who steal public records are stealing democracy itself. If these trends continue, pretty soon we will have to go through road blocks and have our papers checked.
Andy Thibault
http://morecooljustice.com/
http://www.cooljustice.blogspot.com/
2:15 p.m. Friday, 8-22-14
Reply
Dan Klau
August 22, 2014 at 3:11 pm
Andy, I’m not sure how to respond to your last. I fear our conversation is descending into “Jane, you ignorant sl-t” territory. I think we are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I’m tempted to get up from the canvas and continue the good fight, but I foresee simply another blow to the head if I do.
Reply
3. andy thibault
August 22, 2014 at 3:19 pm
Dan,
Look forward to working together on FOI reform … we both took some punches … would like to channel this into mutual interests … for the public good.
In friendship and appreciation,
Andy
Reply
Dan Klau
August 22, 2014 at 3:26 pm
Andy,
The feeling is mutual.
Warmly,
Dan
Reply
4. Ethan Fry
August 24, 2014 at 9:57 am
Re: Commissioner of Public Safety v. Freedom of Information Commission et al., the AAG arguing that case in front of the Supreme Court (incidentally, Terrence O’Neill) conceded while responding to a question from Zarella that police have to produce some sort of “narrative” beyond the bare blotter information, or “the news release would be a sham.”
So however bare it is, the public is entitled to some sort of narrative beyond the blotter information, no?
The full exchange:
“All that news release would need to have is the name and address of the person arrested, the date and time and place of the arrest, and the offense for which the person was arrested, that’s all that the news release would have to contain, is that correct?” Zarella asked.
“No your honor,” O’Neill said. “At that point, the news release would be a sham.”
“That’s not a news release, that’s blotter information,” O’Neill went on. “Clearly, the statute, to be given full force, requires the production of some document that contains some narrative.”
More at
http://valley.newhavenindependent.org...
Reply
5. Mike M
August 28, 2014 at 2:33 pm
Oh, man, I was hoping the argument would go further – minus the personal attacks. I thought the discussion was just getting started.
Cool Justice Blog
August 21, 2014
Abomination CT style: Jane Doe still in isolation – 7 months #JusticeForJane
August 14, 2014
Caveat Petitor! Let The Petitioner Beware! Memo To CT's FOI Commission & The Citizens It Is Charged With Serving - Or, How Govt Enables Cops To Hide Public Records
New doc from FOI Commission
received 8-22-14
at bottom of this post
NEW: 8-21-14
Point-Counterpoint: Klau v. Thibault on FOI – Rounds 1 & 2 ... bout suspended as peace breaks out in search of FOI reform ...
Appealingly Brief: Andy Thibault’s Well Intentioned, But Misguided, FOI Op-Ed
… Thibault response in comments section …
--
NEW: CT Asst. AG in #FOIA suppression case fined for ethical misconduct in another matter
Updated column including reference to AAG O’Neill’s ethical woes posted at Danbury News Times, Connecticut Post, Stamford Advocate & Greenwich Time 8-20-14; links at bottom of this post …
Original column via 21st Century Media CT Group
By Andy Thibault and Isaac Avilucea
HARTFORD -- In the history of Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission, it has always been a guiding principle that lay or non-lawyer complainants do not need to be represented by counsel. This is because it is the job of the hearing officer to make sure the lay complainant is able to present a case while at the same time hearing the evidence in a fair and impartial manner. We currently have a case in which state police wrongly withheld easily-retrievable public records. Their failure to produce public records promptly is colored by their alleged and phony rationale that the salient documents related to a pending case. They ultimately produced the records four months late, but, before the case was adjudicated.
Connecticut’s FOI law demands prompt production of documents. Generally, prompt means immediately unless the public agency can demonstrate that production of the public records would interfere with the normal course of business.
Our FOI complaint – lodged in December 2013 – was heard on July 30, 2014. The hearing officer was Commissioner Matthew Streeter. The case was logged as 2013-775, Isaac Avilucea / Andy Thibault / Register Citizen V. Connecticut State Police. Regardless of any draft decision Streeter might put forward, his bias and negligence pose a dire warning for any lay complainants who appear before the FOI Commission going forward ...
Complete column at Register Citizen
Also at:
New Haven Register
Middletown Press
Andy Thibault is a contributing editor and columnist for 21st Century Media’s Connecticut publications and the author of “more COOL JUSTICE.” He formerly served as a hearing officer and commissioner for the FOI Commission. Isaac Avilucea, a 2011 graduate of the University of New Mexico, joined the reporting staff of The Connecticut Law Tribune in August 2014 after covering cops, courts and schools for The Register Citizen.
Streeter official bio
Flashback: How Streeter handled FOI request -- about himself
Register Citizen, Jan. 1, 2014: Vance said his department decided what constituted prompt production.Debate rages over FOI response times
'They are trying to keep a lid on this'
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UPDATED
via Hearst CT papers:
'Caveat Petitor! Let the Petitioner Beware!'
Complete column at Danbury News Times
Also at:
Connecticut Post
Stamford Advocate
Greenwich Time
Connecticut Network hearing coverage
New document received from FOI Commission
8-22-14
Portentous? Cops get 2 present doc post-hearing b/c hearing record botched????
... Evidence presented by complainants, meanwhile, shut out ...
Cool Justice Blog
Caveat Petitor! Let The Petitioner Beware! Memo To CT's FOI Commission & The Citizens It Is Charged With Serving
By Andy Thibault and Isaac Avilucea
HARTFORD -- In the history of Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission, it has always been a guiding principle that lay or non-lawyer complainants do not need to be represented by counsel. This is because it is the job of the hearing officer to make sure the lay complainant is able to present a case while at the same time hearing the evidence in a fair and impartial manner. We currently have a case in which state police wrongly withheld easily-retrievable public records. Their failure to produce public records promptly is colored by their alleged and phony rationale that the salient documents related to a pending case. They ultimately produced the records four months late, but, before the case was adjudicated.
Connecticut’s FOI law demands prompt production of documents. Generally, prompt means immediately unless the public agency can demonstrate that production of the public records would interfere with the normal course of business.
Our FOI complaint – lodged in December 2013 – was heard on July 30, 2014. The hearing officer was Commissioner Matthew Streeter. The case was logged as 2013-775, Isaac Avilucea / Andy Thibault / Register Citizen V. Connecticut State Police. Regardless of any draft decision Streeter might put forward, his bias and negligence pose a dire warning for any lay complainants who appear before the FOI Commission going forward.
Complete column at Register Citizen
Also at:
New Haven Register
Middletown Press
Andy Thibault is a contributing editor and columnist for 21st Century Media’s Connecticut publications and the author of “more COOL JUSTICE.” He formerly served as a hearing officer and commissioner for the FOI Commission. Isaac Avilucea, a 2011 graduate of the University of New Mexico, joined the reporting staff of The Connecticut Law Tribune in August 2014 after covering cops, courts and schools for The Register Citizen.
Streeter official bio
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