Threatening Times in Ludington

[XLFD]

September 7, 2016 a date that will live in infamy if you are a citizen of Ludington and aware of the corrupt government we currently find ourselves under.  By now, you may have heard WMOM FM (102.7) running with an unprecedented 'news conference/witch hunt tribunal' as their lead story on Wednesday and Thursday, and wondered what it was all about, as it seemed to harken back to the days of Eugene McCarthy.

You may have caught the Mason County Press' take on the issue (Police investigate web threats to city officials; prosecutor chooses not to press charges) that arrived late on Wednesday night and learned a bit more than what could fit into a radio spot.  Including a police interview with one of the witnesses in the case, whose identity was freely given while the two suspects identities were thoughtfully covered up, being that they were judged to have done nothing wrong.  Unprecedented indeed, when they ran with the interview with that witness thrust on them by the Ludington Police Chief. 

And you are even more likely to have caught this on the web or in the Thursday COLDNews:  (Ludington police delve into ‘threats’ to city officials, talk to Tom Rotta about issues).  It seems to go out of its way to prove the point that its writer is on the side of a tyrannical city hall investigation with political motives rather than the issues of the rights of the press and speech.

The above article includes their own copies of the police report:  LPD Aqjfc pol rpt.pdf

and the summary, more of a timeline, of that report:  LPD Summary Aqjfc pol rpt.pdf

And so you have the basics of that matter, and your own prejudices and beliefs to form an opinion, without dealing with mine.  I would like to supplement your own decision at this point with addenda to help you either solidify your opinion that this was little more than an inquisition, a glorified witch hunt in order to suppress dissent and smear a reform candidate running for office, or (if you think Tom Rotta is the devil) make you question your faith in the officials of our area.

I recorded the meeting set up at 1 PM on Wednesday but let me set this up with a brief history of what got me and two other Torchers to this point, information that you won't note on the summary or report.  After Aquaman (I will use screen names throughout) was phoned by the police and interviewed over that medium, he contacted me and his lawyer about it.  We all thought it was over and done with, but then I and jfc123 were called on the same day to interview with Sailor. 

Jfc123 was located in SE Michigan, so did the phone interview, I came in to the LPD station for mine, because I was interested in what the investigation was all about, and my interview is above.  You will note that I brought my own recording device just in case, and didn't answer any question I was not comfortable with; I was strictly a voluntary witness more interested in interviewing them and uncovering their intentions. 

Not hearing any more from the City of Ludington for a couple of weeks, and receiving confirmation from both Torchers that they had heard nothing and thought the matter resolved, I sent a FOIA request on August 24 for the police records associated with this investigation.  On September 1, I received a response back that effectively denied me any part of the records, declaring them as part of an active police investigation.

You will note by the summary that the investigation was turned over to the prosecutor on August 22, and should have been made available as the police investigation was over.  The FOIA Coordinator sent me this on the afternoon of September 2 after I appealed his decision:

You will also notice the warrant memo in the police report said the warrant would not issue on September 1st, the day before the FOIA Coordinator sent me that message, with Shay and Barnett copied.  Not only had the investigation been completed, but the prosecutor's decision had been made.  I was lied to by the FOIA Coordinator, though I did not know that at the time.

Later that day I sent back this to Spaniola and Attorney Alvarado: 

"I have no idea what charge the LPD is seeking to prosecute regarding one or two of my website's members for ambiguous words about a public official, but in any case the only 'victim' in the record appears to be Ludington City Manager John Shay. As the Mason County Prosecutor's Office is a contracted criminal attorney of the City of Ludington and receives a generous stipend each year for that service, under the yearly strong referral by the aforementioned John Shay, decisions made by this office as to whether a warrant will issue or not may appear to be improper with the unambiguous specter of a conflict of interest in the background due to this relationship.

I strongly urge the county prosecutor to recuse his office from this witch hunt, and allow some other prosecutor to review the aspects of the investigation from an unbiased perspective. I also must insist to the Ludington FOIA Coordinator that the 'law enforcement proceedings' are effectively over now that it has been handed to prosecutors and the public deserves the investigation records up to this point with the usual redactions found in such police records. Please enjoy your weekend and could you both give me an answer by the end of the business hours on Tuesday."

The addition of Ludington City Councilor Mike Krauch to the victim's list makes this conflict of interest and appearance of impropriety more pronounced.  Spaniola did not issue a warrant, but I have a feeling that an unbiased prosecutor would have sent a memo back that would have inquired as to why was this even a question to consider.  This will be sent to the Michigan Attorney General's Office and the Attorney Grievance Commission for their review of these attorneys' actions throughout this witch hunt. 

Instead of just following the law and giving me the records I requested, the City of Ludington then decided to play politics in order to embarrass the councilor candidate who ran the website.  Detective Sailor gave me and the other two Torchers a cryptic phone call the afternoon before the 'press conference'.  He would not tell any of us what this meeting was about other than signing forms and picking up packets.  Sailor did not have the decency to tell us then what this meeting would develop into.  More unprofessionalism.

Chief Barnett made it clear at the top of the meeting what it was all about, if the preponderance of local media bigwigs in the LPD waiting room at 2:00 didn't; the managing news editors of WMOM, the Mason County Press, and the City of Ludington Daily News were all there under a similar summons, though I have found since that they were given more details of what this conference was about.  Barnett lead off with:  "The reason we are all here primarily is because frankly, our past experience with Mr. Rotta's website is information is given out in a less than accurate way."

As always, he failed to give any instance of when this has actually happened in the eight years of our reportage..   

And this is why the City of Ludington invited them in-- to pick up all the materials I asked for and that was illegally withheld from me for about a week.  These three agencies signed a LPD-prepared FOIA form to receive the same packet I was given at the beginning of the meeting.  And then the tribunal began.

In the middle of the media event after going through the summary, Chief Barnett tried to get me to renounce the witchcraft on my website, I refused:

Barnett:  "Mr Rotta, as the curator (sic), chief administrator of the Ludington Torch, do you have any thoughts on the matter relative to how your website is to be used, was used here..."

Rotta:  "No, but I am curious on what sort of..."

Barnett:  "The question was 'Do you have any thoughts relative of how your website is used, was used against..."

Rotta:  "I forefronted my response with 'no'. What I am wanting to find out is what sort of statute were these guys going to be charged with for this particular language on the website?"

Barnett:  "I'm sorry?"
Rotta:  "In the police report there had been said the complaint would be forwarded to the prosecutor's office to request charges for Thompson and Chippi for making threats on the internet and using a computer to commit a crime.  Where are those statutes?"

Barnett:  "There are no statutes because they are not being charged..."
Rotta:  "What were they trying to get charged with, beyond that? What are the statute numbers?"

Barnett: "750.81 I think [MCL 750.81 is an assault statute not applicable here], I need to double check on that and let you know, 750. something.... It's up to the prosecutor to determine what charges to be prosecuted under. So going back to my question, do you have a comment as to how you would like to administer your website so that this type of thing, which I believe is pretty frequent, do you have any idea as to how you're going to make modifications to keep this from happening again?"
Rotta:  "No; this is First Amendment, protected speech and this whole investigation is a witch hunt..."

The investigation apparently concluded there were no statutes being violated, but they hoped the City-employed prosecutor would find one anyway.  The same thing happened back in Salem, Massachusetts back in colonial days.  The level of the conversation quickly went downhill shortly thereafter, not my fault, when John Shay brought up that Aquaman's post was threatening:

Rotta:  "Where is the physical violence, he's offering you a medical cure for your mouth..."

Shay:  "What do think that is?  What do you think that is?"

Rotta:  "I don't know, maybe it's Sucrets.  I have no idea what his remedy for your mouth is."

Shay:  "You're lying"
Krauch:  "You're a jerk."
Shay:  "You're absolutely lying."
Rotta:  "He [Aquaman] didn't offer any."

Shay and Krauch apparently think that I have the capacity to read somebody else's mind when they leave a post.  The fact is that Aquaman's post was suitably ambiguous and admittedly made when he had a few too many adult beverages, so I cannot reasonably infer what he said as a threat of violence.  Shay and Krauch obviously believe I do when they resort to name-calling and false accusations after I plead my lack of omniscience.

Shay then went on, telling me that I was lying about not having removed the posts of John Chippi, I insisted I hadn't.  After Chippi repeated his apologies to all concerned, Shay once again told me I was lying about removing Chippi's posts, I once again insisted I didn't. 

The summary and the police report states on it in three different places that Chippi had removed his own posts, and I had responded in another place I did not remove the posts.  If this were an actual criminal proceeding, we would both testify to the same.  Shay is not only calling me a liar, but calling John Chippi a liar too. 

And once you think about it, there really is no reason why we would lie about something like that, it's immaterial.  Shay just loves calling citizens liars, when he has been caught in numerous outright lies through the years. 

Shay did not stop at that, however, after the conference was over and I shut off my recorder, he attacked me with what can only be called libelous charges that were noted in the newspaper as taking pictures of his house and watching his children go to school; fortunately they also reported  my counter assertion that Shay was incorrect, and that he was spreading lies.

Isn't it ironic that in a meeting and investigation where they went over the Ning's term of service involving threat, libel and slander, that these city officials resort to that in a public forum.  You will recall that John Shay threw slander out similar to this in June 2013 at a city council meeting just after I had won my federal lawsuit against him and the City of Ludington.  That's kind of crazy in my book, but his enablers at city hall, the police station and the media give him a pass when he calls others crazy.

And lest I forget the single-minded focus of the City leadership and police, while they were investigating these unproven threats, and unlawfully withholding records so that they could politically showboat, I posted a terror threat on the Ludington Torch's Facebook presence, the Ludington Pitchfork. 

It wasn't a threat by me, or by anyone who would post on the LT with serious intent, it was made by Jake Muzzo, a Ludington graduate who is currently holding a position where he should know better. 

This is a real threat.  There is no ambiguity, there is no LOL posted on the end.  The words he added were threatening not just one or two officials, but a school full of innocent kids; it's a textbook terroristic threat.  Yet, the various police agencies and other officials who monitor my websites have not launched an investigation to find out what kind of intent Muzzo had when he made his statement.  Maybe it's because Jake Muzzo is not running a website critical of the City of Ludington's policies and officials, or running to reform  Ludington City Hall. 

This is pure political posturing by the City of Ludington to discredit me and my website and intimidate anybody who speaks out against their corrupt enterprises, like the three Torchers.  How many hours were spent by our well-paid public servants trying to orchestrate this bad opera?  Don't let them get away with it, insist on cleaning up your city beginning at the top.

[jfc123]

Pretty much sums it up! Mr. Rotta, my mom asked since march for someone to talk to about the 2008 PM Bayou storm, then the 15 million gallons of raw sewage(estimated) then the 2012 that spewed millions of gallons over thanksgiving (ironic?) All of it is still there! Never cleaned up? WHY? Local media you know me and my name but don't know of this? I call BS!! A decline of business at Tamarac? Wonder why? Do your homework! Not even what I said!!!!!!! Why not reach out to people that have been hurt? We are not newsworthy? We support Tom because he was the ONLY one that reached out to us! TOM ROTTA 3RD WARD COUNCIL!

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks jfc, for your accurate and heart-given statement tonight.

[John Doe Jr]

We all kmow who the real threats to Ludington and Mason County are. But, zero accountability and no transparency, the Good Ole Boys ways, the Blue stains, and the lying City Council, and the Rogue forces that be will make sure they come out clean no matter how many lives they destroy. Nothing but lawless deplorable unhonorable thugs'

[stump]

Wow, This could be on a future of the late Paul Harvey news cast. NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY. What bunch of jerks. I'd be contacting a lawyer to sue their ass. Witch hunt for sure to discredit your names.

[XLFD]

You have to question the city's intentions not only to try and impeach my and my website's character, but also the two alleged to have made threats.

There seems to be a good indication that the 'investigation' maliciously misrepresented Aquaman's previous encounters with local law enforcement.  It should be noted also that the two people targeted by this witch hunt were two private marina operators.  Doesn't the City of Ludington own a marina that directly competes with them?  What a great way to defame the competition by having city officials be victims of the non-threats, investigators of the non-threats, and prosecutor of the non-threats. 

People should be up in arms about what is happening here but many are afraid for themselves, their families and their businesses, of the unfettered corruption that is displayed on a regular basis.

[shinblind]

Artist rendition of City Manager John Shay and City Councilor Mike Krauch from the recent edition of "Meet the Sheep" Ludington's version of a press conference. 

The conclave of the media was orchestrated as  a hatchet job in its feeble attempt to discredit candidate Tom Rotta using both the media, the Ludington Police Department and the justice system. Like all things associated with Shay it was both sophomoric and insipid. It failed in its purpose other than being a demonstration of the City Managers control of the local press.

My opinion of the whole affair hasn't changed my  initial opinion of John Shay.

PISS ON YOU JOHN SHAY.

I hope those words are strong enough to frighten Shay into his safe place and that he doesn't resurface until after the election. I am tired of Shay's cheap Jerry Springer theatrics. 

[Willy]

That's funny shinblind.

[Willy]

X, I love the exchange you had with Shay. The Sucrets remedy is priceless. Here are 2 City representatives that could be doing great things for the City but no, they have to use their power and influence to, operate in secrecy, deny information to the public and worst of all try to muffle criticism about their gross mismanagement of the City.

[AQUAMAN]

That's funny but all too true Willy. Here's a challenge I'd like to offer to those that both support and don't support CM Shay. He's been here over 10 years, as CM, and taken over $1Million in salary and benefits to his profit. Can anyone name three, (3), major positive accomplishments in this career time that positively affected the Locals, not the Tourists? By now I would have accomplished about 5-7 major accomplishments in that position, so, I'm only asking for 3, that's fair imho.

[Willy]

[stump]

Bath room of choice option? Well yes, the ones without cameras. Now which public bath rooms in Ludington don't have inside cameras again?

[Willy]

stump

The transgender bathroom issue is what the little bird is referring to. They have the option of using any bathroom they choose. At least that's what Obama says.