Manistee, Land of Milks and Homicide, Sued for Withheld Public Records

Back on March 29, 2017, the Ludington Torch related the story of a police-involved shooting of a septuagenarian white man in Manistee, and declared there was a lot of air bubbles still in the official side of the story, which was related by their public safety chief as hearsay information (see Points to Ponder About the Manistee Police Shooting of Lee Milks).

Local media took the story, ran with the self-serving story, and pretty much gave up on following up on it due to a vacuum of information being supplied.  The Ludington Torch and two other media outlets (according to Manistee's city attorney) asked for supplemental information through FOIA, all were initially denied.  I did receive some of the prior code enforcement material for the address after appealing the decision, but the attorneys for the city and county would not allow any more; my administrative appeal to the Manistee city council failed due to their opinions (see A License to Kill on Her Manistee's Secret Circus)

Since March 29th, the City of Manistee has not released anything else beyond their original statement, they fail to even tell the public whether this 'public safety' officer is still on the job or not while the investigation gets to the 70 day mark, quite a lot of time given the specifics of this case.  As I have noted with my public comment in front of the Manistee council, there are too many questions the curious public have to keep them this long in the dark. 

On the 66th day of silence, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) disclosure lawsuit against Manistee at the county services building in Manistee.  Most of the time when I file FOIA lawsuits against public bodies for violation of the FOIA, and this is my eighth, it's because they have flaunted an exemption improperly in order to protect themselves from giving away records that showed they acted improperly in some other way.  This time is really no exception, but it goes further in a way, because a man is dead, and to me, it seems as if he was killed in a manner that would defy just about any public protocol-- even with the one-sided recap provided by their public safety chief. 

Do I think the county prosecutor would dare pursue any charges on 'Officer Doe', when he is capable of ignoring public records law without any kind of legal exemption to do so?  Of course not, he will protect his own, as he already has by withholding public records that need to be released.  The courts will eventually find that to be the case, after a colossal waste of time and money by the citizens of Manistee and me. 

Why can't they instead use that money and time to properly train their officers and weed out people who can not de-escalate such a situation?  And train their city councilors for that matter on the issue of the FOIA, so that they can listen to their lawyer and the requesting citizen and be able to clearly annunciate their position in accordance with the law.

The City of Manistee has also adopted a onerous and unlawful way of figuring out how much a FOIA requester owes in order to inspect or receive public records.  They attempted to charge me nearly $20 in order to inspect a few pages of code enforcement records, charging for paper copies I never asked for, and for half hour of a police sergeant's time.  When I asked to inspect the City's past year's FOIA responses, to see whether they have been charging everyone illegally, they tried to charge me nearly $60. 

Here is the 11 page complaint:  Complaint.pdf

The Exhibits named in the complaint can be located in these two .pdfs:

Exhibits 1-6.pdf

Exhibits 7-13.pdf

Be advised, the Ludington Torch will not rest until we get these records from a reluctant and corrupt City of Manistee, and if you want to help the cause, let them know that you won't visit their little burgh because their officials are allowed to kill solid citizens and not be accountable for it at all.  If you're a citizen of Manistee, let them know you won't take this kind of corruption in your government, and heaven help you that you don't wind up like Lee Pat Milks.

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There are plenty of good camping locations outside the City of Ludington that you can visit, and if you want the best firewood at the best prices, I would advise you relax your boycott to get some on East Dowland Street in town. 

Still only two dollars for a bundle of seasoned, quality hardwood-- the seller has got to be touched in the head.  I hear that the profits help fund the legal costs of keeping the local governments in check.

I don't understand why they cannot release official reports that contain information they have already released to the public. Cross of what they don't want revealed and provide proof that what the officer stated in his report is what they actually released. Good luck X.

The lawsuit was formally served by my better half at 10:05 this morning to the Manistee City Clerk.  After dropping the last copy off at the courthouse, we went to take a look at the Milks property.  The shattered front door has been replaced with a wooden door, but Milks' bus is still in the backyard.  I would have probably talked with some neighbors, but we had to get home.  

Not to mention that both city and county officials knew we were in town, and we didn't want to become victims of another anonymous 'public safety' officer. 

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