Gloucester Officials
Ignore Freedom Of Information Requests.
Since March of this year,
2012, we have been filing with Gloucester County, requests for
information under the Freedom Of Information Act. To date, we are
being ignored and are now on our third request for the same
information. The information being sought regards a search warrant
that was issued in Gloucester County back during the month of May of
2010. Here is a jpg image of the search warrant as given to the
defendant. What is also interesting is that the Daily Press on
Sunday, April 29th did a story on an Author Stonewalled On
Court Records Request in the Crime and Legal Issues Notebook section
of the paper. This story is reprinted here
under the fair use doctrine.
(Click Image To Enlarge)
To be 100% fair. Our
first request was in writing at the Gloucester County courthouse with
the Gloucester County clerks office. We requested the affiant
affidavit because the defendants state they never received this with
the copy of the search warrant. If this is true, the search warrant
was invalid and the search is considered an illegal raid. Please see
VA Code Ann 19.2-56 below. Also requested was any and all calendar
schedules for and or showing any scheduling of the search on the
search warrant in question. The written request was for a search
warrant File Number 10.45. I knew that the search warrant file
number was not valid but this is what Gloucester County had written
in the File Number section of the search warrant. I wanted a letter
showing that this file number was invalid.
By the way, I had to hand
write the request and was not given the usual form for this request.
The filing of this request was witnessed. On the date this request
was filed, one of the clerks who only had a couple of minutes to look
up information before leaving told me that there were 3 pages of
affiant information and two affiant's. I already knew this but was
not sharing that part of the information. I was later told that the
county had 10 days to respond to this request and asked how I wanted
it sent. I requested that the information be sent via US mail.
After 5 days of the
written request, I did get a phone call from the Gloucester County
clerks office where this request was made. I have a time and date
stamped recording of the phone call along with the message that was
left. The message was to call the clerks office and the phone number
to the clerks office. I wanted a letter so I did not call back.
After 14 days had passed,
allowing for extra days for mail delivery, I had no response on this
request at all other than that one phone call. So then I went on
line and filed the FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) form at the
Gloucester County web site. The form if filled out on line will not
retain the information typed in there for the requested information.
It boots that part out. So I had to create my own form using theirs.
I sent it via email that gives a digital time and date stamp, to the
person listed as the main contact for these forms. Christi Lewis is
the Gloucester County contact person. I filed this pretty late at
night and it was received and responded to on April , 2012. Here
is a jpg of the email I received. .
And Who Received This Copy?
Here is a copy of the form
I sent requesting said information.
County
of Gloucester
Request
for Public Records Pursuant to the
Virginia
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
In
order for the County of Gloucester to accurately process your request
for public records under
FOIA,
please provide the following information to help us assist you.
Date
of Request: _April 11th__________________ Time of Request:
___N/A____________
Person
Submitting Request:
__Chuck_Thompson____________________________________________________
Mailing
Address: Removed for
privacy.
______________________________________________________________________________
City
Hayes State
VA Zip
Code 23072
Telephone
Number(s) for Contact: Removed
for privacy._ ____________
I
understand that I will be charged for copying costs and may be
assessed for the administrative time
utilized
to search for the documents or data requested. A current schedule of
costs is available upon
request.
(Agreed)
I
request that all charges for supplying the records I have requested
be estimated in advance. I also
understand
that if charges are expected to exceed $200, I will be required to
pay estimated charges in
advance.
(Agreed)
Description
of Public Records Requested:
Any
and all affiant information in regards to a search warrant, file
number 10:45 signed by one Gloria
Owens.
Said search warrant is against one (Removed for Privacy) dated May
3rd,
2010 in regards to a criminal
case.
Any and all documentation regarding any and all evidence of each
affiant of which there are two,
Any
and all evidence to include any and all digital and or other forms of
photography, any and all
video,
and any and all voice recordings. Any and all calendar schedules of
advance notice for said
search
to take place whether from Gloucester County Sheriff's office, Animal
Control and or from any
said
court.
Any
and all meta data and or meta tags showing date of creation in the
county court computer systems,
date
of creation, time of creation and by whom created and in what office
for said search warrant.
Said
request is made this 11th
day of April, 2012
in the County of Gloucester and is filed via email to
the
address listed below to one clewis@gloucesterva.info . Said request
is the second request made for
said
information with a waiting period of over 12 days with no response.
1st request
was made at the
Gloucester
County Court house and was in writing at said location and dated
March 23rd,
2012.
RETURN
COMPLETED FORM TO:
Freedom
of Information Compliance Officer
Gloucester
County Department of Community Education
P.O.
Box 1306, Gloucester, VA 23061
Telephone
(804) 693-5730 Fax: (804) 693-0509 Email: clewis@gloucesterva.info
RECEIVING
DEPARTMENT/OFFICE
Person
& Department Receiving Request:
___________________________________________
Request
Received: ___ In Person ___ By Phone ___ In Writing (includes e-mail
& attach to form)
FOIA
OFFICER USE ONLY
Date
Request Received by FOIA Office: ________________
Response
Type: ___ Granted ___ Partial ___ Denied ___ Extension Requested &
Date:
__________
Response
Sent/Provided Date: _____________________
Specific
Information Provided: _____________________
Specific
Charges and Payment: _____________________ Revised 9.08
As of today, May 1st,
2012, I have now filed a 3rd request for this same
information.
County of Gloucester
Request for Public Records Pursuant to
the
Virginia Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA)
In order for the County of Gloucester
to accurately process your request for public records under
FOIA, please provide the following
information to help us assist you.
Date of Request: _May 1st,
2012 (Third
Request)________________ Time of Request:
___N/A____________
Person Submitting Request:
__Chuck_Thompson____________________________________________________
Mailing Address: _
______________________________________________________________________________
City Hayes State VA Zip Code
23072
Telephone Number(s) for Contact: _
_____________
I understand that I will be
charged for copying costs and may be assessed for the administrative
time
utilized to search for the documents or
data requested. A current schedule of costs is available upon
request. (Agreed)
I request that all charges for
supplying the records I have requested be estimated in advance. I
also
understand that if charges are expected
to exceed $200, I will be required to pay estimated charges in
advance. (Agreed)
Description of Public Records
Requested:
Any and all
affiant information in regards to a search warrant, file number 10:45
signed by one Gloria
Owens. Said
search warrant is against one dated May 3
rd
, 2010 in regards
to a criminal
case. Any and
all documentation regarding any and all evidence of each affiant of
which there are two,
Any and all
evidence to include any and all digital and or other forms of
photography, any and all
video, and any
and all voice recordings. Any and all calendar schedules of advance
notice for said
search to take
place whether from Gloucester County Sheriff's office, Animal Control
and or from any
said court.
Any and all meta
data and or meta tags showing date of creation in the county court
computer systems,
date of creation,
time of creation and by whom created and in what office for said
search warrant.
Said
request is made this 11
th
day of April, 2012 in the County of Gloucester and is filed via email
to
the address
listed below to one clewis@gloucesterva.info . Said request is the
second request made for
said information
with a waiting period of over 12 days with no response. 1
st
request was made
at the
Gloucester County
Court house and was in writing at said location and dated March 23
rd
, 2012.
This
is a third request for the above information and is dated May 1st,
2012. To date all requests have been ignored.
RETURN COMPLETED FORM TO:
Freedom of Information Compliance
Officer
Gloucester County Department of
Community Education
P.O. Box 1306, Gloucester, VA 23061
Telephone (804) 693-5730 Fax:
(804) 693-0509 Email: clewis@gloucesterva.info
RECEIVING DEPARTMENT/OFFICE
Person & Department Receiving
Request: ___________________________________________
Request Received: ___ In Person ___
By Phone ___ In Writing (includes e-mail & attach to form)
FOIA OFFICER USE ONLYDate Request
Received by FOIA Office: ________________
Response Type: ___ Granted ___
Partial ___ Denied ___ Extension Requested & Date:
__________
Response Sent/Provided Date:
_____________________
Specific Information Provided:
_____________________
Specific Charges and Payment:
_____________________ Revised 9.08
The second request was
given 12 days for a response along with extra days for last minute
mailings. In other words, I gave Gloucester County the benefit of
the doubt. This was not ignored by one party in Gloucester County,
but instead it has been ignored by multiple parties in Gloucester
County as evidenced by Christi Lewis' email to me on who she sent my
requests to. One has to assume at this point that maybe there is
something to hide here? In upcoming stories on this case, we will
show that there is in fact a lot to hide, in our opinion. We have a
lot of questions and now we are producing a lot more questions and so
should you. Our next article is going to deal with the actual search
warrant itself and we are going to go over the Virginia laws as it
applies to search warrants and in particular this search warrant. We
think you will agree with our opinion that the search warrant issued
was totally false, misleading and illegal. See our story, Gloucester
County Producing False And Illegal Search Warrants?
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