Tales of Obtaining Public Records: January 2008

Thursday, January 31, 2008

DHS Denies Documents, Claiming Public Has No Interest

Leave it to the Department of Homeland Security to refuse a FOIA request from The Seton Hall School of Law Center for Social Justice and the Brazilian Voice.
If you like a post, please consider Digging it, or book-marking it with one of the nice social bookmarks at the bottom. Thanks. From Courthouse News Service:

NEWARK - The Seton Hall School of Law Center for Social Justice and the Brazilian Voice newspaper demand that the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement respond to their FOIA request for statistics on warrantless police raids on New Jersey immigrant communities. The DHS refused the request, stating, "a preliminary search of the internet does not indicate that there is substantial current news interest concerning (illegal immigration)," the plaintiffs say in their federal complaint.

I know D.H.S. are experts at Internet Research, after all DHS Agent Michael Burks was caught on NBC's To Catch a Predator. It seems like DHS knows how to use the internet REAL WELL.

This is one suit I don't think we the U.S. Taxpayers should have to end up paying for when DHS loses and is forced to pay attorneys fees. Here is the Complaint.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Anonymous CPRA Requests?

Do you wish you could submit Records Requests but are afraid that it might jeopardize your position, career, etc.? I think I have a solution, but I want to see if there is a need. I am always trying to find a way to increase the income for my family, and since I currently do not have any beefs with governments (today of course) I thought I might offer the service of CPRA REQUESTS for hire.

What does this entail? You provide me with the information you're seeking and I will draft the request, and I will be the goto person. Your name is protected, in fact it is never mentioned. You pay the costs of the copies and a small fee to cover my time.

In fact for the first few requests I'll let YOU decide how much my time is worth, please don't take advantage of me. I do reserve the right to refuse to work with you, if I think you're doing nothing but trying to get me sued, or involved in lengthly protracted battles. So if you are at all curious about something within the government and/or you know there are documents out there and you want help getting them, lets talk. I can be reached via this blog in the comments section, email me by clicking the image or at the icon in the left column.

Click here...it's not over yet

Monday, January 28, 2008

Did Former Priest "Bernie Ward" Indicted for Transmitting Child Porn violate Pretrial Release?

Bernard V. Ward (Bernie Ward) was indicted in December 2007 for receiving and TRANSMITTING child porn. His explanation: Doing research for a book. Every news report I hear talks about his "receiving child porn" nobody addresses the issue of "TRANSMITTING" it. Bernie Ward was a liberal talk show host on KGO-AM/San Francisco. The Indictment was returned September 20, 2007 and remained sealed until December 6, 2007. The United States DOJ issued this PRESS RELEASE regarding the matter.

According to the Indictment Ward is accused of not only receiving pornographic images of children but worse, he allegedly TRANSMITTED them. Why does anybody believe this is acceptable "research"? According to the Court's Docket there was a recent hearing regarding whether Bernie violated the terms of his pretrial release. I emailed the prosecuting US Attorney for comment, we'll see if she responds.

Since Bernie has not disputed he accessed child pornography but offers an excuse as to why he did, where does his "Research Exemption" fall? It doesn't. Let's apply some BERNIE LOGIC. I'm researching a story on how easy it is to access child porn, so I will engage in chats with people in chat rooms and obtain child porn in the interest of journalism. Then I will continue my research and transmit the very images to other people interested in child porn (maybe they're doing research too) and help them become involved in the illegal receipt of child porn. Then I'll research a story on serial killing. Obviously I'll have to kill a few people in the name of "Research" then its off to dealing in drugs, so that I may round out my "Research" project, after all I am going to write a book someday. My guess is that the book would be an autobiography and the title should be, "How I got Caught - Tales from a former Priest convicted of receiving and transmitting child pornography".

Judge Walker issued the Pretrial Scheduling Order for Bernie's case, it looks like he's going to trial on June 10, 2008. Do I smell a Plea?

Here are the documents for yourself:
Indictment
Court Docket
PreTrial Scheduling Order

Click here...it's not over yet

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

San Francisco City Attorney's Office and Public Records

San Francisco Office of the City Attorney's HOME PAGE has a SECTION dedicated to informing the public (you, me, anybody who can access the internet) about San Francisco's Sunshine Ordinance and How to Obtain Public Records. From the face, it appears "transparency" is important to Dennis J. Herrera. ***You will also find a lot of documents pertaining to the Christmas Day Tiger Mauling Incident***San Francisco is a city marred with allegations of Police Corruption, misconduct, cover-up, etc. While I don't know the facts of the present situation being reported by SFGate regarding a rookie officer and domestic violence I do know that the City Attorney's Office has done a relatively good job with their Web 2.0 interface and easily accessible documents. The City Attorney's Good Government Guide for 2007-08 and the accompanying Good Government Guide Supplement are available to download. Officials are required to submit a Sunshine Declaration to the Ethics Commission in order to comply with the Sunshine Ordinance.

The City Attorney's Office even provides a lengthy explanation of how to obtain public records from the City. They also include a sample request here. While I don't know if this is all fluff or serious openness, but at least its public. Has anybody had any experience trying to get records from the City? Please comment and let me know.

Click here...it's not over yet

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Brent Wilkes, Scott Peterson, Susan McDougal, Anthony Mark Bianchi

What do all these people have in common?

They were/are represented by Mark John Geragos of Geragos and Geragos. Thats right all the forenamed criminal defendants were/are represented by the same attorney the two Dhaliwal brothers immediately retained. When was the last time you could remember someone retaining a high-profile criminal defense attorney for an incident that allegedly didn't involve a crime?

According to the Union Tribune:

Federal probation officials are recommending that Brent Wilkes, the Poway defense contractor who was convicted of bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, should be sentenced to 60 years in prison, according to court records.

TPMmuckraker says this about it:

Wilkes' lawyer Mark Geragos knows this is bad news, and so has asked for extra time to prepare a counter-argument. Among the things he objects to: the recommendation was based on the assumption that all $90 million of Wilkes' federal contracts were the result of bribing Duke Cunningham. Not so, says he (even though the jury convicted him on all thirteen counts). At least some of that he got fair and square. We look forward to him fighting that out.

Here's some info on Anthony Mark Bianchi certainly someone that I wouldn't let near my kids. Indictment
Superceeding Indictment
Motion to Dismiss
Motion for standby counsel
Motion for Sanctions

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Metadata from Digital Photos

Is there a way to get the juice from photos taken on a camera phone? According to Microsoft there is. I wonder how useful this would be in terms of obtaining the information on government phones? Phones paid for by people, and whether or not images were taken inappropriately. I realize it's a long shot, but I'll have to test the tool and see how reliable it is. This could be a real asset for digital discovery.
Welcome to Microsoft Photo Info 1.0.

From Out-of-the-box lawyering: Metadata in photos: There’s a lot of hidden information in digital photos
Here is a link to the download (must have a valid Window's install).

Click here...it's not over yet

Thursday, January 17, 2008

FUGITIVE AT LARGE

This is a story about my friend's daughter. Please take the time to read it and help if possible. Julio Guevara-Mejia is a COWARD, and he needs to be caught. Americas Most Wanted has the story. Or contact her dad DAVE at his myspace page.