Well, would-ja check this out -- I can't vouch for its authenticity, but it looks like it speaks to my question posted below; question being, if this wasn't an official "county" thing, why the heck would it turn over anything - at all - to somebody filing a FOIA request?
[I wouldn't call this first-class legal work, by the way. There are only two proper answers to a FOIA request -- a) turn over everything the law requires, if 's a qualifying public entity that's being queried; or b) don't turn anything over, if it isn't. Turning over some documents, and not others, is the "worst of all worlds," so to speak.]
Anyhow, if the letter at that link is to be believed, it looks like various people on the county's payroll believed it was a "county" thing -- some may have used official letterhead, worked on it while on payroll, blah blah. But then when the county was sued under FOIA for records (again, if this letter is to be believed), why, then, here comes the county, with "muchos affidavitos" about how it's not an official "county" thing.
Here's why it's relevant: allegedly taking money from a charity is one thing. Allegedly taking money from an official county fund (whether charitable or not) is quite another. Allegedly (or, admittedly) using county resources to raise money for an arguably-private charity (if the county doesn't approve/maintain/sponsor it) is yet a third thing.
But allegedly using the mail and/or the telephones to raise money in the county's name, if it's not, in fact, a "county" deal, would be not just a fourth thing -- it could be a "federal" thing (tax implications aside).
Oh, and the second-worst piece of lawyering on full display here? Letting your client talk directly to the cops. However this goes, I do hope Mr. Roesler considers trying to get his fees back for that "oops."
Oh, mannnn... sometimes I almost wish I didn't have a J.D., so I wouldn't know what to look for in a purported letter like this: http://www.johnjayjurkas.com/righttoknow/Documents/letter1.pdf
If this claimed letter is real (who knows, right?) and if it was either mailed or faxed, there could be some Muskegon-based cars spending some time in downtown Grand Rapids pretty soon. Oy, vey...
No comments:
Post a Comment