The Place Where Ludington Talks
FOIA Lawsuit Initiated Against Ludington
At a meeting of the Ludington City Council occurring on September 14, 2015 the City Clerk of Ludington was served the court process for the latest lawsuit against the City of Ludington.
The seven page complaint details the officials of the City of Ludington denying a public records request that should have been granted outright back in March, seeking the arrest report of a Ludington citizen named Gene Foster who was arrested on March 10, 2015 by Ludington Police Officers Tony Kuster and David Krause.
I must admit of having a vested interest in this case, for earlier that day in March, I attended the marriage of the man arrested, where he was betrothed to a woman who considers me her father. This man, Gene Foster, was visited by these officers about a week before, who told him they had evidence that proved he sold marijuana to an undercover cop about six months previous. They wanted his help then to catch real marijuana dealers, offered him some leniency for his help.
I italicized 'real' in the last paragraph because I do not believe that Gene Foster is a dealer. He was contacted repeatedly by someone via phone working with the area SSCENT team to get them something for an emergency 'fix'. The text messages to his phone that I have seen, were actually answered by another person who got the word to Foster that someone was in dire need for some medical marijuana. Allegedly, Foster sold it to the man for the price he had paid for it, well under a hundred dollars.
For that transaction, the prosecutor wants to put Gene Foster away for three years, despite the entrapping measures that were used to entice him. Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts said in concurrence with the court's decision to justify an entrapment defense in a prohibition era ruling: "Entrapment is the conception and planning of an offense by an officer, and his procurement of its commission by one who would not have perpetrated it except for the trickery, persuasion, or fraud of the officer."
Much worse than the possible entrapment was the blatantly illegal actions done by the two officers on the day they went to arrest Mr. Foster. This is briefly stated in my FOIA lawsuit complaint starting at clause #45, and will likely be revisited at the federal court level.
Exhibits 1-7 are pretty self explanatory and within the council packet of March 23, 2015, the all important Exhibit 8, which shows that three publicly-paid attorneys (the FOIA Coordinator, City Attorney Wilson, and County Prosecutor Spaniola), willfully withheld non-exempt records from the public and from a criminally-charged defendant in dereliction of their duties. Here is Exhibit 8: Arrest Rpt.pdf
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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Ran across this in the morning news: Ypsilanti Police Department won't give City Council requested infor... It reminds me of a time when I asked for LPD's search and seizure policy and was given the riot act even when they included the full policy as an exhibit in the Malone v. Ludington lawsuit. It must be scary to live in Ypsilanti when the police will not only withhold the public records they are supposed to share from the public that pays for their salary and for their toys, but also from the body corporate. Accountability and transparency are obviously not something they can be proud of.
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Thank you, Willy; I think the law and the MI Supreme Court is definitely on my side, but our local courts might try their best to pervert their words and intents.
On the chance that I receive a fair trial court judge and get the $1000 in punitive damages, I will be applying that to the legal fund for Gene and Sherry Foster, poor victims of our local officials' tyranny.
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Permalink Reply by AQUAMAN on
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There is a very strong opposition at city hall nowadays about medical or any marijuana. This town is behind the times when it comes to that subject matter, and don't want to adhere to State of Michigan laws on this matter at all. All I can ask is why would Mr. Foster sell any weed to anyone at all? Especially someone he doesn't even know? That to me isn't smart, nor much of an excuse for his actions in this regard. As for the SCCENT Team, they will do practically anything to entrap someone into their snare. I guess that's what they get paid for, unfortunately in some instances like this. As for a local judge squashing this, even if they are from Lake or Oceana County, they are all in cahoots with Ludville anyhow, so your case will likely have to go to an Appeals Court. The FOIA response though on this matter still isn't right, and Shay and his shyster FOIA coordinators know it all too well, and just like pushing people's buttons. Good luck, and hope Foster learned a big lesson here to correct for the future.
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Permalink Reply by Jasper on
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Never ever be a snitch...Cops promise a lot of things! Your friend snitched in return for info, but yet he is looking at major time in prison!
Your friend should have never agreed to talk with the SCCENT Cop and giving up his Miranda Rights!
Good luck with your lawsuit against the COL...May your prevail! And, may your friend prevail at the Federal level for entrapment.
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Meanwhile, Gene Foster is at the mercy of a more than likely worthless court appointed attorney such as David Glancy!
PTL Mr. Glancy was not elected for Prosecutor of Mason County. Not that Spaniola is any better, but it possibly could be worse for Mason County if Glancy had been elected!
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Prior to his arrest, Gene had been given advice about his Miranda rights, however, the arresting cops off-the-record allegedly threatened to charge his new wife with a "harboring a felon" charge if he didn't sing, capitalizing on his ignorance of the law and his fear of the local 'justice' system's power.
He definitely made some poor choices, but I think it's probably a poor choice on our SSCENT team to waste resources on repeatedly contacting a Medical Marijuana cardholder with no history as a dealer acting like a hardship case in order to get them to sell some of their marijuana-- at the same price they had to pay for it. No wonder our local police want to keep their policies confidential.
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Let your friend Gene be an example for anyone reading this. Never ever "open your mouth, or feel threatened," by a cop spewing nonsensical Bullshit!
Always ask for your right to an attorney before opening your mouth to these hungry cops that lie and deceive for their own self serving lying benefit of twisting, manipulating, lying tactics to intimidate you! Never, ever trust a cop in this type of situation!
Unless you have tons of cash flow to defend yourself...you are doomed at the hands of worthless public defender's who don't give a sh!t! Why would a public defender give a sh!t??? Because the County only pays them a very small stipend fee to defend you.
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If I was Foster, I'd be googling to find an attorney in Mich. that specializes in marijuana defenses. Some might work pro-bono on a case of this nature, meaning, no charge. It's a sure thing that with a public defender, just as Jasper points out correctly, the case will only be pleaded out in the end, and Foster will be the loser.
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Today, I received a letter from the FOIA Coordinator regarding this case giving me a police arrest report made by Officer Kuster for the incident. In no way was this an investigative record, it was an arrest report which is a public record. It does indicate even more severe misconduct on behalf of the prosecutor, for this report was never made available to the defendant before now, and its contents (and omissions) would be pertinent for his defense against the charges.
The warrants, warrant affidavits and other report attachments are still unavailable, and are not exempt from disclosure.
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The LDN reported your lawsuit....May all of you prevail against this undeniably corrupt system.
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Here's a link to it: Rotta suing City of Ludington over FOIA denial in marijuana case. It wasn't in today's paper, being posted earlier this afternoon by Brian Mulherin. It shows how dysfunctional the COLDNews is-- Cub Reporter Kevin Braciszewski was at the September 14 meeting, over a week ago and decided it wasn't news even though I posted the lawsuit online later that night, and was available for questions after the meeting.
It's not the usual COLDNews hack job, but being that it was online, they could have linked to the complaint without problem so that the public wouldn't have to rely on the incomplete information given them.
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