Firewatergate: LPD's Ongoing Scandals and Cover-ups Showing Selective Enforcement

[XLFD]

The May 4th meeting of the Ludington City Council expanded the two-year-old Firewater-gate scandal to new proportions and made the council's complicity in the cover-up clearer than ever.  If it wasn't already made clear by their continued silence in regard to the second part of the scandal.  Let's clarify what the Firewater-gate scandal is and why it is a two-part scandal and two separate cover-ups all in one.

                                     LPD Officer Edward "Trey" Forfinski and LPD Sergeant Austin Mendez 

The far from noble Mendez Incident

It all began back in June of 2024 when off-duty Ludington Police Department (LPD) Officer Austin Mendez in his POV was driving home from the bar after it closed.  Mendez would make a series of traffic infractions indicating that he was driving while impaired and finally pulled over to the side of the street after a police chase where Mendez was clocked driving over 30 mph over the limit.  LPD Officer Noah Noble would recognize his peer once he approached the window and the DWI stop took a crazy turn.  Noble would start disabling his body worn camera (BWC) almost immediately, and shortly after the shift sergeant, Angela Babinec arrived, they both shut down their BWCs and in-car cameras.

Mendez's fellow police union members would reportedly take him and his vehicle home without further incident, and without any legal consequences.  Babinec would come clean on the incident to her own superior a few hours later, and it would spark an internal investigation at the LPD.  While there would be a token investigation three days later by the MSP and a review by the prosecutor, the details of the incident itself would not be known by the public until this reporter overheard a reference to the DWI event at a December 2025 court hearing where Mendez was testifying against a defendant facing a much lesser charge.

The Mendez DWI only became an issue after I sent a FOIA request looking for records realted to it on December 11th.  While the city was in a period of transition between law firms, they did what turned out to be a surprising act of transparency-- albeit, 18 months after the fact.  Before they would give me anything, they publicly revealed their records and tried to spin their concealment of it for so long as "not a cover-up".  They strategically did this on a Friday afternoon, two days before New Year's Day.

The sad sequence of LPD events back in 2024 that was on display gained a lot of looks from local news and police accountability sites.  WZZM TV and the Mason County Press picked the story up immediately, the local paper and Detroit Free Press, among others, took the story up after that day.  Wider exposure occurred at popular Youtube sites, including the Civil Rights Lawyer and Nico and Cy.

This was the 'sexy' part of this scandal and cover-up, where we could read about and look at the incriminating videos that made on wonder why Mendez was not treated like your normal drunk driver.  It turns out that part two of Firewater-gate was beginning the very same afternoon that LPD Chief Christopher Jones was publishing the Mendez records on the city website and showing how the system failed in that case.  It appears Chief Jones only chance for not repeating the Mendez debacle was to destroy the video evidence of what happened on Christmas Eve.

The Forfinski Incident, minus incriminating video footage

The afternoon of December 30, 2025 had us publishing The Big Lyla, clarifying why a city official came to the council meeting eight days prior and fed the story to the local paper as a feelgood story about an LPD officer doing a selfless act.  At the time, we saw it as a way for the city to deflect the release of the Mendez records.  However, this article ended with a mention of the Christmas Eve event, where we indicated that we had a credible witness to the incident and were preparing a public record request to find verification from the police report and videos.

The audit log of the BWC of Officer Trey Forfinski (the responding LPD officer) shows it was not reviewed by personnel until 3:03 that afternoon, 6 days after the event and the purpose of review wasn't to look at the 80 minutes of footage claimed in the eventual FOIA response.  The purpose of the 'review' that lasted five minutes was apparently only to reclassify the video.  Rather than retain the footage for the default period of one year (top entry above), the footage would instead be deleted 30 days after the incident (bottom entry).  

The full annotated timeline of the Forfinski incident that followed thereafter was provided here, we provide it again for 2026 to get us to the cusp of this latest expansion of the scandal:

 

Jan 02, 2026:  FOIA request received by LPD from XLFD

Jan 09:  FOIA response indicating $131.36 fee, and summation, indicating no exemptions claimed

Jan 11:  LT and LP run with another article about abusive fees, second coverup.  1470 views.

Jan 22:  FOIA fee appeal re BWC footage submitted to Ludington City Council (LCC)

Jan 26:  FOIA fee appeal re BWC footage extended by LCC by vote to next meeting

Feb 09:  FOIA fee appeal denied, LCC finds $131.36 is proper fee to provide edited BWC footage

Feb 23:  XLFD offers $131.36 for BWC footage, payment rejected by COL that night w/o reason

Feb 24:  City treasurer accepts payment, LPD Sgt. Morris says it will take 12.5 days to comply

Mar 11: (15 days later) City sends multiple files indicating that the footage requested was destroyed

In order to understand the inherent corruption behind this series of events, I sent out one supplementary FOIA request and was blocked from seeing several public records by a privilege that has still not been claimed by anyone associated with the City of Ludington.  I appealed.  I went over some of the basics of that here and explained it to the council on April 13.  The council would defer to rule on it until their May 4th meeting, I would get partial compliance on two of the emails, both shared in edited form, then re-released in unedited form showing clearly that Attorney-Client Privilege (ACP) did not exist, the first:  

When a city official sends out an email and then someone tries to claim ACP, the email must be made in confidence between their attorney for the primary purpose of seeking or providing legal advice.  Someone carelessly claimed a privilege existed here when the only message conveyed is between the city manager and police chief.  The other was even more embarrassing, a simple two word message from Chief Jones, definitely not seeking legal advice:

Neither Aldrich or Jones had ACP on either of these public records, but they would be the only potential official to claim that the email was a privileged communication, when it clearly wasn't applicable.  This was a willfully corrupt act on their parts, and an indicator that the ACP didn't apply for other emails, many which give a clear indication they were not sent to get or give legal advice.

This is usually self-evident.  An email from Aldrich to Jones and an assortment of five lawyers with a summary and three paragraphs redacted finishes by saying the email was only for connecting parties, saying no one needs to respond:

No advice was being sought from representatives from three different law firms, so why was ACP applied?  Similarly, emails between two attorneys cannot generally claim that privilege unless one is playing the role of a client.  Here are the core elements of having the ACP:

As you can see, it is not only the client that can claim privilege, but also only the client who can waive it.  If Aldrich or Jones wanted to be transparent, they could waive the privilege at any time and show their actions were above-board.  They implicitly claimed it and refused to waive it; they went to the April 27th meeting with an attorney opinion withholding the records from the city council.  They originally tried to have the council rule on records they hadn't seen.

The city council confirms its complicity with corruption

On May 4th the council would vote to go into closed session to look at a "legal opinion".  They came back after 50 minutes and in short order, kept the ACP on about ten records, a motion was made to deny the remainder of the appeal without discussion other than a brief statement from Councilor Jack Bulger.

"The issue is attorney client privilege, and after reviewing the documents, the text cut out of the documents, I'm satisfied that those do fall within the attorney-client privilege and I think as a general proposition that if that's the case, then we should have a practice of not waiving that, absent some really strong reason which I don't see that really exists here.  So, I intend to support the motion."

And after a unanimous vote, we finally had someone affiliated with the city claim ACP on the withheld records:  the city council.  Our elected officials have remained mute over every aspect of the Firewater-gate scandal, rather than showing unconditional love towards the police department at almost every meeting, while they take great pains not to bring up the Mendez or Forfinski incidents in any way. 

When finally given the chance, a seasoned jurist like Jack Bulger with the opportunity to dispel the scandal and cover-up that would have most cities reevaluate and reform their police agency, instead invokes ACP to perpetuate the crimes therein with the only thing missing was a sloppy kiss planted on the lips of Chief Jones, who sits next to him on the raised dais.  Bulger and his six other accomplices failed to offer any explanation as to why ACP would apply and why it should apply to the covered-up public records. 

These are a gang of crooks circling the wagons, being led by those who would destroy public records requested from the public before their time in clear defiance of the laws.  These are people who have never admitted their fault for doing these acts, which also include the false pretense fraud of accepting money for records that didn't exist and the public extortion that also accrues due to the fact they are public officials.  

This isn't about attorney-client privilege, it's about the City of Ludington effectively invoking the Fifth Amendment for its corporate self.  The city council just showed its complete complicity, not one of these councilors has the backbone to stand up to the corruption that has afflicted city hall in the worst way.

At the end of the May 4th meeting, I would respond to the council's decision along with pointing out the ethically-suspect history of their bidding out for sidewalk replacement contractors.

  

XLFD: [2:03:10 in] "Seven years ago, this city council voted unanimously to reject the low bid for the three-year sidewalk replacement contract offered by Spuller Concrete, 16% lower than the bid offered then by Ruggles.  Ruggles was granted the three-year contract and have not had to worry about competitive bidding ever since, having been offered a new contract in 2022 without having to worry about competition then and ever since, even when their option for one-year renewals expired in 2025. 

When public servants regularly forgo the competitive bidding process for government contracts, the public takes notice, and any integrity that you claim to have, as you do in the most prideful way whenever you can, vanishes.  When your corrupt bidding practices happen regularly, when the businesses owned by state senators win over the low bid then continues getting the contracts without competitive bids thereafter, people take notice because they pay for the seeds of your corruption, that are tied to your intentional and willful acts against ethics and laws. 

Your city manager lies and has no honor.  Your police chief lies and has no honor.  Your city attorney... is a lawyer, so it goes without saying.  They tried to hide public records by misusing FOIA exemptions, public records that showed firsthand that our police violated the public trust, and then the chief expedited the destruction of those records.  This is your legacy of corruption, supported by your actions throughout your term and especially tonight by intentionally covering up public records showing the corruption in the shadows of city hall and the police station [END comment]."