Monday, May 6, 2013

Another brick in the wall

A month after I filed a request for information related to the arrest of CJ Grisham, I received a response from the County Attorney.

NanRodriguezPCAffidavit

I never claimed any disability. This is a special sort of spin inferring the information was available all along and the only reason I did not have the information was because I did not stop by to pick it up. The reality is, the Temple Police Chief, City of Temple and the City Attorney violated the Texas Public Information Act. I personally find it very troubling when the people with the authority to enforce the law ignore the law.

Here is my response:
GatestoNanRodriguez5-2

Here is the before and after photo:

Picture1

After studying the matter for a while, here is the response from the City Attorney:

RodriguezReply

If you pursue it long enough, eventually they show their cards. This is a very disturbing e-mail. They begin the communication by hiding behind a misinterpretation the the AG letter. They then reveal that they were in fact in possession of the affidavit. I filed a request with the AG for clarification.

The second part is a denial information released existed. This is a very simple matter. The information was supplied via e-mail to Mr. Watson. This leaves one to wonder if a government document, the e-mail. was destroyed by the department. Doesn’t seem like something like that would be very hard to locate yet according to the County Attorney, it does not exist.

Lastly there is the matter of the public information act signs.

Sec. 552.205.  INFORMING PUBLIC OF BASIC RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES UNDER THIS CHAPTER. (a) An officer for public information shall prominently display a sign in the form prescribed by the attorney general that contains basic information about the rights of a requestor, the responsibilities of a governmental body, and the procedures for inspecting or obtaining a copy of public information under this chapter.  The officer shall display the sign at one or more places in the administrative offices of the governmental body where it is plainly visible to:

(1)  members of the public who request public information in person under this chapter; and

(2)  employees of the governmental body whose duties include receiving or responding to requests under this chapter.

The language is pretty clear. You can check the photos and decide for yourself. It’s kind of like saying you can not file a DWI charge because the next morning the person was no longer drunk.

I saw some correspondence from the Mayor and he was no different from the police or city attorney. The evidence has been submitted for your review. Make your own conclusion.