The McAdam's Lawsuit: What is the COLDNews Not Telling You?

[XLFD]

Everything!

Tomorrow the agenda of the Ludington City Council not only has the usual FOIA appeal of an improperly denied FOIA request by yours truly, but they should be going into closed session to discuss the status of what is called the McAdam's Lawsuit with the City of Ludington with their non-City Attorney Allan Vander Laan  (Item 9b). 

 

What is the McAdam's lawsuit?  At this point I can only make an educated guess, but I believe it more than likely involves the owner of Michael's on the Avenue Sue McAdams and what happened early in the summer of 2010 when the "Girls Gone Wild" bus came into Ludington, and the local officials, in particular, LPD Police Chief Mark Barnett, went... wild. 

 

Here is an article from the local newspaper that is so friendly to the Ludington City Hallers that it is now affectionately called the City of Ludington Daily News or COLDNews by those in the know. 

 

"...an appearance Thursday by the Girls Gone Wild bus drew many viewers, at least a few protesters and prompted what appears to have been a parking blockade that limited where the bus could park.

The visit, part of a promotion at Michael’s Bar and Grille in downtown Ludington, also prompted city officials to gather and review with its attorney, Richard Wilson of Gockerman, Wilson, Saylor and Hesslund of Manistee, what, if anything, could or should be done about what was billed as a “bikini party.” ... Michael’s owner Sue McAdam Thurday afternoon told the Daily News, “My intentions are good. I have no intentions of demoralizing our community. I don’t feel there’s anything wrong with it.”

Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett met with the bus crew prior to the show while it was parked at the Holiday Inn, where the crew stayed overnight,

He said he told them, “I would like to see an event where no girls were being filmed in the bus and no girls were taken to the bus and they lived up to that, and kept their promise that they wouldn’t take any girls to the bus and they wouldn’t film on the bus,” he said....

“I am not condoning what Girls Gone Wild does and I’m not promoting that,”  she (McAdam) said.

“I didn’t realize it was that big of a deal,” she continued. She said it was a business decision following a financially difficult winter. She said the establishment is behind on its taxes and is trying to get back to even.

“We won’t have them back. I apologize, but it was a business decision. What’s the big deal?”

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news/50436-not-so-wild-in-ludingt...

Reader's comment at the bottom of the article go both ways, but one of the poster's "Sherry" says something that may have become reality:  "The people on the ggw bus did NOT break the law. The people at the bar did NOT break the law. The people from the churches, they DID break the law. The chief of police, He DID break the law. The article in the paper said the leaders of this town conferred with their lawyer before taking action. I think the bar owners should confer with their lawyers cause they have a lawsuit against the city. And they will win..." 

 

With a variety of actions done by the City of Ludington to suppress the expression of free speech, started by Chief Barnett supported by the Manistee-based City Attorneys and other City Hallers who should know better (where have I heard this story before?) their questionable actions bespeak a germination of a lawsuit by Sue McAdams on this aspect alone.  I will do some more research, and get back to this thread on the specifics I uncover, and would appreciate any more factual information supplied by anyone who knows anything about this lawsuit to be disseminated to the public at large on this website.  As far as the COLDNews, they have reported nothing to the public as of yet, not even in discussing what is scheduled to happen at the City Council meeting tomorrow when this is scheduled to go into closed session. 

[Angela]

So havent gotten around to Cole yet.  Though have heard from my other sources.  First off on the McAdams lawsuit - the Tasers are suppose to be equipped with a chip that records the time and number of deployments for each Taser gun - (i know this from training and from the info I received from Taser Int) BUT since FIERS has been cutting costs, like has been stated many times, the Tasers at the SO didnt work right - HE, JEFF FIERS failed to maintain the Taser equiment (due to wanting to save $$$) so these chips did not work - so the county cannot prove or disprove that McAdams is lying about the # of tasers deployments that he received.  This is not the fault of Wilson or Davila - if Jeff didn't maintain the equipment then it is his fault that the county and US taxpayers are going to have to pay out on this lawsuit!!!!

Also, this other info I am about to state was heard from a 3rd party, someone I know heard this from the upper admin not too long ago - I repeat - NO ONE directly from the office told me this, so yes it may be hearsay but i truly believe it:  Ever since Jeff has been in office, a "use of force" report HAS NOT been filed with the departments insurance carrier, as PER THE MSCO POLICY, this report is suppose to be filed with their insurance carrier EVERY TIME a taser is deployed.  This is something that the bosses don't want people to know. makes u think huh?  This sure does seem like somethin sneaky Trenner would do anyways...........

Oh BTW isnt there some state law or staute that says no smoking within 50 ft of any govt' building or public access area?  just wondering if this is a law or just an ordinence?

[Brian Carlson]

If all this can be proven, McAdams may have won the lottery at the expense of the Ludington taxpayers. The lack of training, the chips in the tasers all point to a good case for McAdams.

[Lisa O'Brien]

I thought in the court documents it does show how many times he was tazed and the length of each attack.

[Angela]

McAdams is saying he was tazed more times - MCSO says that the officers didnt taze him that many times but with faulty equipment it wasnt recorded like it should have been, only a few of the deployments were recorded........all of them should be according to Taser Int

[XLFD]

If someone at the MCSO has the lack of ethics indicated by erasing the recordings on the cell phones, one can assume they may redo other records involved in this situation as well. 

[Chuck Finley]

Well Angela, who would be responsible to make sure that policy(s) are carried out? Why didnt the supervisors make sure the report was filled out? Could this be one of those times I've read about? We wont spend the money on the proper training and hope for the best and if that dont work we'll deal with it if it happens? That's kinda of a poor way to run a place I would think.

Moreover; if all this time he has been saying that Cole has been lying to us, how much misdirection has he been throwing at us to make Cole look bad? I just didnt have a good feeling about him since I heard about the Mud Run campaine fund raiser he was at with all the illegal activity he turned a blind eye to. How many lies has he told us while in office?.

[Angela]

thats what I have been trying to say all along - Fiers sits there and says Cole is a liar, but wont or cant prove or show what Cole is suposedly lying about YET Fiers fails to tell us whats going on and wont answer our questions - FIERS is the liar here and he is calling Cole a liar just to deflect to spot light away from him.  The Sgts. can do all the want and fill out all the reports that they want but if the Chief Deputy or the Sheriff doesn't follow thru and file those reports, then whose to say what really happened...............just like the Penn State scandal - Joe Pa told his supervisors what was going on, what he heard, but they did nothing about it............so you can't sit there and put all the blame on Joe Pa when all the upper mgmt didnt do anything about it

So you cant blame the Sgts when its the higher ups who are responsible for the final out come

Also - what are u talking about Mud Run fund raiser and illegal activity?  did I miss something?

[Chuck Finley]

Mud run is just hearsay, I heard it 3rd hand so I dont know how true it is. Johanna could probably tell us better on whats going on there.

So how many times has he told us stories and we believe it because of his authority status/level?

[Brian Carlson]

If McAdam could prove that they erased his cell phone, which I believe they did, that would be a major help to his case. It may have been possible to retrieve his video before it was written over.

He may be able to buy his own GGW bus after this case is over.

[Chuck Finley]

What if he was so ripped up at the time, he didn't record anything at all and don't remember, but believes he recorded something and all he got was his finger in front of it and now is trying to blame everyone else... if that ends up being true he should be punished for a wrongful lawsuit and hit hard on it for wasting taxpayer money.

[Angela]

even he did make a mistake thinking he recorded something - thats not what this whole lawsuit is about - its about misuse of power and overuse of the taser and assault

[Chuck Finley]

wouldnt it be more on totality of circumstance? those policeman are very small and SmackAdams is very large