City Leaders Violate FOIA to Extend Sgt. Mendez DUI Cover-up

[XLFD]

On December 10th, I announced what I witnessed that afternoon at court in the Ludington Pitchfork:  

"Revealed in open court today, a rumor that I've heard of over the last year but have never been able to verify. LPD Officer Austin Mendez was stopped for a DUI, according to an attorney in good standing. While the court would not allow further inquiry into the issue after objection by the prosecutor, it should be noted that Mendez on the witness stand would make no attempt to deny it.

The rumor/story over the last year has been that Mendez was stopped by a fellow member of the LPD, and the eventual cover up actions by Chief Christopher Jones was to fire one of the officers involved (HINT: It wasn't Mendez).

No, Mendez was promoted to Sergeant last month with full accolades, for serving "both the department and our community with professionalism, dedication, and distinction".

Be sure to congratulate Sgt. Mendez when you see him for showing that we have a two-tiered justice system and a police department that will cover up scandals like this."

The Ludington Torch would send a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the city the next day trying to either squelch the rumor so brazenly presented as fact in court or to show that the rumor was true, and that a callous police department shamelessly promoted this rogue cop despite this irresponsible drunk driving cover-up. 

Mendez (pictured above, looking hop-happy with a little help from AI) himself has gone out of his way to criminalize citizens he interacts with; in the case he was testifying for that day, he admitted that the person he was leading in handcuffs could have very easily tripped when stepping down from a porch.  Yet, he threw the otherwise unresistant suspect against the building and subsequently charged the felony of resisting and opposing, a crime that requires a conscious and intentional act. 

The FOIA request would simply ask for the incident report and written records of any incident over the last two years where Austin Mendez was stopped and suspected of DUI by another LPD officer (without bodycam or dashcam footage, since the city's legal department has set unlawful and incredible FOIA fees for these and this is being challenged currently in the Michigan Court of Appeals).  Additionally, I asked for any resignation/termination letter of any officer directly or indirectly involved with the incident. 

The response should amount to an incident report, supplements that are typically attached to the original report, and a letter marking an involved officer's end of their LPD career.  A reasonable person would expect that this would amount to under half a dozen pages of records, easily called up electronically, or at worst easily found in a personnel file. 

Yet, here's what happened.  Eight days later, on the fifth business day after my request was officially made, I received an email telling me that those easy tasks would require an extension: 

The enclosed "notice of extension" gave exactly zero reasons why the simple request needed an extension, and thus, along with Ms. Gerds' email, the response failed to show why an extension was needed, a necessary requirement under FOIA law.  The City of Ludington's legal staff has decided to break statute MCL 15.235(7) which says explicitly that a reason(s) for extension is mandated by FOIA law.

Not to mention they sloppily left off the date at which the extension time period was up, which would have been helpful given that the work-aversive city hall will likely take the Friday after Christmas and New Year's Day off. 

The point, however, is that they have a request for a handful of pages in easily recoverable places at the LPD (provided they haven't burned or hid the incriminating records against Sergeant Mendez), and their response unlawfully extends the cover-up without any legal reason.  Historically, extensions are only asked for under unusual circumstances, the most common being:

 Five records in at most two files at the LPD, without any foreseeable fees being imposed.  Where's the reason for this?  There is no reason to extend this FOIA request, and definitely none given.  This has moved from an unbelievable rumor, to an unrefuted courthouse statement, to an intentional unlawful cover-up of the records that will show rampant amounts of ethical lapses and whitewashes by the current LPD administration in order to protect a person that endangered our community by driving drunk.  

Equal justice under law?!  Not under the administration of LPD Chief Christopher Jones, one of the three extra people who were carbon-copied in the FOIA response and now knows that he and city attorneys are once again acting against the law to defend a scoundrel who received leniency because of his badge and his special relationship with the chief.

[AnxiousGuy]

They just published a big story about this on MCP. The same officers that arrest members of the public for similar offenses got a slap on the wrist for this blatant cover-up. They failed to generate evidence that would have provided similar “justice” that is sought for all other perpetrators of this crime. The people of Ludington should protest outside the sheriffs office until all 3 of these crooked cops are fired.

[XLFD]

We noticed the LPD Link to Firewater-gate and posted it up on the Ludington Pitchfork yesterday, while Rob Alway was dutifully publishing his acritical report on the June 2024 incident.  We will be publishing an article looking at all of the irregularities of this end-of-the-news-cycle document dump and continue to demand answers because this continues to appear to be an attempted cover-up of major proportions.