FOIA Lawsuit Initiated Against Ludington

[XLFD]

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.

FOIA Suit: 9-14-2015.pdf

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

[Willy]

I read that article in the paper. Thanks for posting it X. The last paragraph shows the pea brained mentality of the LDN. "Rotta's suit was served by Sherry Foster, who married Gene on March 5, according to Mason County Circuit Court records." What in God's name does this have to do with the FOIA request that you made. The LDN just can't help themselves for being biased fools. They must always add or detract from what is the real story because of their total lack of common sense and fair play.  This is the news agency that we are stuck with for most local issues and we can't get an article that deals only with pertinent facts. When other non controversial articles are written they never fill in details to let us know what is really going on but they'll dig into records to add information that they think will diminish support for causes they appose. LDN is the poster child for useless news agencies.

[XLFD]

And the information is dead wrong, as usual, with the totally inept 51st Circuit Court giving out the wrong wedding date (it was March 10, they probably gave the date they received a marriage license), and botching Gene Foster's age (he is 41 not 31) and the date of arrest (it was March 10), not March 11). 

These are relatively minor errors for the COLDNews, however, and you latched on to the main ones.  Sadly, Brian Mulherin and the COLDNews editorial staff, who I am presuming have seen their share of police reports gotten without even making a request, cannot indicate to the public why what the City FOIA Coordinator did was wrong and disturbing to anyone that knows the law, and deeply disturbing to Constitutional wonks who can only believe that there has been severe misconduct by the prosecutor in withholding these records from Gene Foster and... a lot more I will disclose and develop as this continues.

[AQUAMAN]

Well said Willy, the LDN is nothing more than a campfire starter. Pertinent facts are a big option when it comes to real news reporting, if they report anything at all that reveals local officials being corrupt. 

[Willy]

Thanks Aquaman. It's funny you should mention the campfire starter material. That's exactly what I use it for. The problem is that besides the ashes, what's left over in the fire pit is the bullsh_t that was in the paper.

[stump]

Now that is really funny Willy