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Thursday, October 30, 2014
Sickening precedent: Statements to CT #FOI Commission 10-22-14, Re; Suppressed Report
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Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Look who’s reading 'more COOL JUSTICE' now: poet Sandra Ebner & litigator Bruce Baron
Sandra Bishop Ebner’s poems have appeared in various literary journals. Her first book, “The Space Between,” was published in 2000 by Hanover Press. Ebner’s work is featured in the anthology, “The Poetry of Nursing, Poems and Commentaries of Leading Nurse-Poets,” published by Kent State University Press. She is a former psychiatric case manager for a Visiting Nurse service in northwest Connecticut.
Brooklyn, NY litigator and negotiator Bruce Baron is featured frequently as a legal expert on FOX News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Court TV, many national & local talk radio shows, as well as print media. Baron is Special Counsel To The President, Dennis W.Quirk, of The New York State Court Officers Association.
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Monday, October 27, 2014
FOI pledge update: Who's in, who's not ... slackers abound in CT Legislature; Lembo only current Constitutional officer to sign
Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information
Serving Connecticut for 60 years
10/27/14
Update on the FOI Pledge
James H. Smith, 203-915-9428
Gov. Malloy has said he will sign it, but he hasn’t yet. Petitioning candidate Joe Visconti signed the pledge, stating that, “my administration will work to streamline the FOI process by making access to information more timely and more easily accessible.” Republican challenger Tom Foley says he supports FOI but doesn’t sign pledges.
About an equal number of Democratic and Republican candidates for the General Assembly have so far signed the pledged, including five key Democratic incumbents in leadership positions: Senate Deputy President Pro Tempore Joan Hartley (15th District), Deputy Speakers of the House Peggy Sayers (60th) and Bob Godfrey (110th), Assistant Majority Leader Elissa Wright (41st) and Assistant deputy speaker Mary Fritz (90th).
Fritz responded to the two-pronged pledge with “Absolutely” she will “do whatever I can to require that any proposals to weaken or impair the FOI Act be presented for debate at public hearings before any action is taken on them.” She also said “I always have” supported the “independence of the state’s unique Freedom of Information Commission and oppose weakening it.”
The state FOI Act was signed by Gov. Ella Grasso in 1975. Sayers, in signing the pledge, said that, “Gov. Grasso held this seat when she served as a state representative and it is only fitting that I support her legislation.” Sayers Republican opponent, Scott A. Storms, also signed the pledge.
Republican candidate for state Treasurer Tim Herbst has yet to submit his signed pledge, but put out a statement that he “wholeheartedly agrees with the spirit of the pledge and proudly signs on.”
CCFOI sent out the pledge to 360 candidates for state office on Oct. 8. Only about 10 percent have responded to date.
“This is new on Connecticut’s political landscape and I’m not surprised that many politicians have so far delayed signing the pledge,” said James H. Smith, president of CCFOI. “However, it is significant that important legislative leaders see the value in pledging to the people an open government.”
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Sunday, October 26, 2014
The State Govt That Decapitated #FOI Creating A #PoliceState
Cool Justice editor’s note:
In July 2014, The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that only the sparsest of information must be disclosed by local police departments and the state police in criminal cases from the time of arrest to the conclusion of prosecution. As the Hartford Courant editorialized , the General Assembly must step in and restore a proper balance between the public's various interests and the state's interest in protecting the integrity of prosecutions. The balance now is too much in favor of the state.
The following statements were entered into the record at a Freedom of Information Commission meeting on Oct. 22, 2014, regarding the state-sanctioned cover-up of a police-involved shooting at a resort in northwest Connecticut. The commission voted to uphold the hearing officer's report, sanctioning the suppression of public records for four months.
Statements to FOI Commission 10-22-14, Re; Suppressed Report On Shooting by Newtown Cop’s Wife
Isaac Avilucea:
This case was supposed to be about prompt production: Did state police fail to fulfill its statutory obligation to turn over records in a prompt fashion when it released a police report four months after it was requested? But this case devolved into a discussion on discretion.
Mr. Streeter, your preliminary decision favoring state police’s unconscionable squelching of public records shows that you exercised no discretion. Instead, you allowed state police to exercise all the discretion. This is what we feared when the state Supreme Court ruled police have sole discretion over whether to disclose certain public documents. That decision, which Assistant Attorney General Terrence O’Neil revisited again and again during our hearing, sets a sickening precedent. And now the Commission is being asked to adopt something it stringently opposed.
Over the years, the FOI Commission earned its stripes as a tiger with temerity, tracking down and pouncing on public officials and agencies whenever they broke open record laws. But with this decision, the Commission is willingly allowing itself to be defanged. It’s telling journalists that an Assistant Attorney General can do a technical tap dance all over a case and win a technical knockout. That’s wrong.
This case stands and falls on a central question: Is it reasonable for state police to hide a public record for four months? The answer is no. The argument is made that everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence in a court of law, and the release of police records can taint that presumption. But the release of police reports is also an important tool journalists use to gauge police conduct and the merits of their investigations. While police aren’t obligated to release more than blotter information, they are not precluded from doing so. To engender public trust, they should. That’s the discretion that didn’t take place in this case.
In closing, I’ll leave you with some words from one of your own. Attorney Victor Perpetua, who argued the State Supreme Court case on behalf of the FOI Commission, said, “In the information world, timely release is everything.” The state Supreme Court didn’t buy it and eventually sided with the state. But long before that decision was made Lt. Paul Vance instructed us on who the real decider of prompt was. It’s not the people; it’s not the courts; it’s the state police. For that reason, I urge you to reject Commissioner Streeter’s report.
Andy Thibault:
My name is Andy Thibault. I’m proud to have worked on this state-sanctioned cover-up with my colleague, Isaac Avilucea.
“They want to keep a lid on this,” reliable sources told us from the get-go.
We knew what was in the report. We knew there was no good reason – at least in any state pretending to be a democratic republic – to hide this report for four months.
This draft decision resulting from a flawed, biased and unfair hearing, cannot stand.
This decision gives police the authority, as State Police Lt. Paul Vance puts it, to be the decider of what public information is retrieved by the public at what time, if at all. This is the definition of a police state. This is not the will of Gov. Ella Grasso and the Legislature that created CT’s FOI law in 1975.
The state will cite the CT Supreme Court’s butchery of the FOI law as a reason for you to uphold this heinous decision. We ask you, as citizens, not on behalf of any newspaper or organization, to vote your conscience, to engage in a form of jury nullification, if you will. You have the power to vote your conscience. Listen to your conscience. No one will drag you away, not yet, anyway, for voting to uphold the public’s right to know, for voting to correct and injustice.
As an aside, this is the same Supreme Court that recently defined black males as “exigent circumstances” [state v. Kendrick] to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment. These robes in particular are not worthy of any deference or respect.
There are also other, conventional grounds, for you to nullify this decision.
The hearing officer demonstrated incompetence and bias. He failed to allow the complainants to present their case. This is the core duty of the hearing officer.
Instead, time and time again, the hearing officer allowed the asst. AG to cut off the complainants as they tried to present a case. Virtually every objection by the respondents was sustained. Indeed, evidence normally and customarily admitted was disallowed.
As for the respondents, at one point the asst AG scolded my colleague, telling him to behave. Was Terrence O’Neill channeling a sadistic nun? Is he in the wrong vocation? Notably, this scolder himself had been sanctioned recently for unethical behavior by a federal judge.
The respondent Vance admitted under oath that although he has no public information or public records to produce, he bizarrely calls himself a public information officer. When asked about his duty to earn the public trust, Vance was baffled.
How far down the rabbit hole are you commissioners willing to go?
BACKGROUND:
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Saturday, October 25, 2014
What’s for lunch? 'more COOL JUSTICE' at John Bale Book & Café Co.
WATERBURY, Conn. – Local author, speaker, and Freedom of Information advocate Andy Thibault will be on hand at a local bookstore to sign copies of his latest book “more COOL JUSTICE,” a second collection of hard-hitting essays credited with helping to free a woman unjustly convicted of first degree murder.
Thibault, who was presented earlier this year with the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information’s Stephen A. Collins Award, will be at The John Bale Book & Café Co., noon to 2 p.m., on Thursday Oct. 30. The store is at 158 Grand St., Waterbury. Phone: 203-757-2279.
In his foreword to “more COOL JUSTICE,” Andrew Kreig states “More than ever, the public needs bare-knuckle advocates...One such fighter is Andy Thibault, author of the superb more COOL JUSTICE. His fifth book exposes injustice much in the style of his Law and Justice in Everyday Life, which he authored in 2002 to much acclaim.”
UPCOMING:
Nov. 19, 7 p.m., Byrd’s Books, Bethel;
Dec. 2, 11 a.m., Gateway Community College, New Haven, w/ Bonnie Foreshaw, contributor to “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself” & “I’ll Fly Away;”
Jan. 15, 2015, 7 p.m., Oliver Wolcott Library, Litchfield.
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Tuesday, October 21, 2014
FOI Filing 10-15-14, Re; Hidden State Police Records
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FROM: Isaac Avilucea ijavilu@gmail.com, Andy Thibault tntcomm82@cs.com
TO: CT FOI Commission foi@ct.gov, thomas.hennick@ct.gov
COPY TO: Terrence O’Neill, Asst. AG terrence.oneill@ct.gov, Paul Vance, CSP paul.vance@ct.gov
Re; Docket #FIC 2013-775
Avilucea, Thibault and The Torrington Register Citizen v. Schirro, CSP and Vance
MEMORANDUM, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014:
The absurdity of Connecticut’s butchered FOI apparatus is manifest in this draft decision allowing state police to hide public records. It is incumbent upon the governor and the legislature to remedy this betrayal of the public trust.
Isaac Avilucea
Andy Thibault
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Sunday, October 19, 2014
Look who's reading #moreCOOLJUSTICE now, outside, on a brisk fall day ...
CT State Police Det. Sgt. (Ret.) Jerry Longo takes a breather at the #MORRISmarketplace Sunday
Nearby, poet & prof Ravi Shankar lounges on a bale of hay
Five dudes hawking books: Bill Murray, Dr. Joe Bentivegna, Todd Wood, Andy Thibault, Ravi Shankar
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Saturday, October 18, 2014
PODCAST: Det. / Prof Vern Krill #WATR #moreCOOLJUSTICE 10-17-14
click on podcast
at bottom of this post
Vern Krill, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Housatonic Community College and a retired Shelton, CT police detective, discussed a case that never goes away: the rape and murder of a 16-year-old Redding girl on Valentine's Day, 1980. Krill is featured in Ch. 8, 'Good cops are there, you just have to find them,' more COOL JUSTICE. Host for the show was Larry Rifkin.
more COOL JUSTICE is a new collection of hard-hitting essays credited with helping to free a woman unjustly convicted of premeditated murder.
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Friday, October 17, 2014
Today: #moreCOOLJUSTICE on #WATR 1320AM at 11:30 am w/ Det. (Ret.) Vern Krill -Listen live watr.com
Vern Krill, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Housatonic Community College and a retired Shelton, CT police detective, will discuss a case that never goes away: the rape and murder of a 16-year-old Redding girl on Valentine's Day, 1980. Krill is featured in Ch. 8, 'Good cops are there, you just have to find them,' more COOL JUSTICE.
more COOL JUSTICE is a new collection of hard-hitting essays credited with helping to free a woman unjustly convicted of premeditated murder.
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Thursday, October 16, 2014
#moreCOOLJUSTICE at #MORRISmarketplace Sunday, 10-19-14, 11 am - 2 pm, w/ special guests ...
more COOL JUSTICE is a new collection of hard-hitting essays credited with helping to free a woman unjustly convicted of premeditated murder.
A view from the market ...
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ALSO appearing:
novelists Todd Wood ...
And Trip Elix ...
And Dr. Joe Bentivegna ...
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
RegCit: FOI commissioner rules in favor of state police in newspaper complaint case
'The absurdity of Connecticut’s butchered FOI apparatus is illustrated in this draft decision allowing state police to hide public records. It is incumbent upon the governor and the legislature to remedy this betrayal of the public trust.'
HARTFORD >> The Connecticut State Police did not violate Freedom of Information statutes when it delayed release of information to a daily newspaper, an FOI commissioner has ruled.
A hearing was held at the Freedom of Information Commission office in July to determine whether state police should have released an arrest report in a more timely manner regarding an officer-involved shooting.
The Register Citizen newspaper filed an FOI complaint against the state police on Dec. 13, 2013, claiming the state police withheld information regarding a Nov. 16 shooting by the wife of a Newtown police sergeant at Salisbury’s Interlaken Inn.
The Register Citizen had requested the full police report Nov. 22. It was eventually received four months later, on April 10.
The state’s Freedom of Information Act says public agencies must fulfill records requests “promptly” and “without undue delay.”
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Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Proud 2 stand w/ the women of #illflyaway and #couldntkeepittomyself
- Author Bonnie Foreshaw, contributor to 'Couldn’t Keep It To Myself' and 'I’ll Fly Away' at Tisane's, Hartford, CT, 10-14-14; Bonnie has begun work on a memoir ...
- Author Barbara Parsons, winner of the PEN American/ Newman’s Own First Amendment Award and contributor to 'Couldn’t Keep It To Myself' and 'I’ll Fly Away' at Hickory Stick Bookshop, Washington, CT, 10-10-14
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Upcoming appearances #moreCOOLJUSTICE: Wtby @BNBuzz & #MORRISmarketplace
Barnes & Noble Waterbury, Wed., Oct. 15, 6-8 pm
#MORRISmarketplace, Sun., Oct. 19, 11 am-2 pm
B&N announcement:
B&N Wtby hosts
educator appreciation days
including author appearances
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What: A meet & greet style book signing.
When: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 from 6-8 pm
Where: Barnes & Noble Booksellers
235 Union Street (Brass Mill Commons)
Waterbury, CT
Featured authors are:
Tara Andrews, No Peanuts for Santa (children’s young readers)
C.C. Gross, Rising Up…from a Long Way Down (parenting & family challenges)
Christine Ieronimo, A Thirst for Home: A Story of Water across the World (children’s picture book)
Mary Donnarumma Sharnick, Thirst and Plagued (historical fiction)
Sean Stellato, No Backing Down: The Story of the 1994 Salem High School Football Team (regional sports)
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Andy Thibault, more COOL JUSTICE (current affairs, media/journalism)
This event is featured during Barnes & Noble Waterbury’s Classroom & Homeschooler Educator Appreciation Week which runs from October 11-19, 2014. Educators will receive special discounts all week and be celebrated at the Classroom & Homeschooler Educator Appreciation Reception on Friday October 17 from 3-7pm.
Contact: Robin Masiewicz - Assistant Store Manager, at 203 759-7125 or crm2893@bn.com for additional information on this and other Barnes & Noble events.
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Monday, October 13, 2014
'The joint was jumpin' -Bob Thiesfield photo gallery #HickoryStickBookshop #moreCOOLJUSTICE 10-10-14
-photos ok for reprint w/ credit to BOB THIESFIELD
- Kris & Jen Allen warm up the crowd
- 'more COOL JUSTICE' is a new collection of hard-hitting essays credited with helping to free a woman unjustly imprisoned for premeditated murder
-'more COOL JUSTICE' author Andy Thibault w/ Jim Smith, president, Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information
- Reporters Isaac Avilucea, Ct Law Trib, & Esteban Hernandez, Register Citizen, check out some books and newspaper clips
- Jake Thibault w/ Fran Keilty, Hickory Stick host / owner
- Author Barbara Parsons, winner of the PEN American/ Newman’s Own First Amendment Award and contributor to 'Couldn’t Keep It To Myself' and 'I’ll Fly Away'
- Reading from 'more COOL JUSTICE'
- Thibault & Parsons
- Hickory Stick's Pat Moody was the point person for the event
- Kerwin Mayers, Hickory Stick co-owner Michael Keilty & Marjorie Morris
- Sherrie Passaro, daughter of Mary Badaracco
- Thibault & Avilucea
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