Transparency News, 11/17/2022

 

Thursday
November 17, 2022

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state & local news stories

 

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Police-worn body cameras give a firsthand look into crimes, hold officers accountable, and strengthen trust between law enforcement and the community. But on the back end, Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney, Colin Stolle, says the amount of time it takes to watch that footage is putting a strain on prosecutor's offices across the state. "Last year alone, Virginia Beach police sent to my office over 21,000 hours of body camera footage we had to watch," said Stolle. "It can be overwhelming at times…Don't get me wrong, I think body cameras are a good thing. I think it's reassuring to the public that their law enforcement officers have body cameras." "You can't put a price tag on transparency and that their officers are conducting things how they should. But at the same time, it does have other effects in the process." Stolle says his office has already noticed a pattern of continuances in court cases. If the funding doesn't happen soon to handle the increased workload, he says he's not required to prosecute misdemeanors, only felonies.
WAVY

A federal judge has granted Prince William County Supervisor Pete Candland’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by a constituent who alleged Candland violated his rights to free speech by temporarily hiding a comment he left on Candland’s official Facebook page.  However, the judge also left the door open for plaintiff Patrick Harders, of Gainesville, to refile his lawsuit by Nov. 25.  Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, ordered on Nov. 10 that the lawsuit would be dismissed in its entirety unless Harders filed an amended complaint within 15 days.  Harders initially filed the federal lawsuit in July, alleging Candland, R-Gainesville, deleted or hid comments Harders made in response to a post Candland made about his Patriots Day celebration at Catharpin Park. Because Candland is an elected official, and the page is used for “back and forth communications” with the public, the lawsuit argued that removing the comments violated Harders’ federal and state rights to free speech.   Candland’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit argued that Harders’ complaint failed because it did not allege that Candland personally hid the two comments or that Candland had “supervisory liability for a government employee who did.”
Prince William Times

The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously denied a rezoning application that would pave the way for a luxury RV Park in the Westover District. The denial came after more than a dozen residents spoke out against the project that called for 454 RV slots on 91 acres off Vandola Church Road. The Board was particularly concerned that the Florida-based developer, Joe Cubas of J. Cubas Holdings LLC , had not met with residents about the project. The exchange between Cubas and Westover District Supervisor Ron Scearce became heated after Scearce asked the developer how many LLCs he had. Cubas turned it around to question Scearce about his social media page and called it a “slanderous machine,” and believed it applied to him too. At that point, both men began to raise their voices and had to be called down by county attorney and interim County Administrator Vaden Hunt.
Star-Tribune
 

stories of national interest

"[They filed} an open records request ... to obtain video of Jameson walking around the courthouse in his underwear."

Thousands of text messages from Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s city-issued iPhone and the phones of other top officials went missing for years from the public record, including texts he sent after former President Donald Trump directed federal agents to the city to quell nightly racial justice protests. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the city uses specialized software to capture text messaging on city-issued phones so they can be retained for public record requests, but the software can’t capture encrypted messages sent using Apple’s iMessage service. OPB’s investigation found the mayor and his staff sent and received thousands of iMessage texts between 2017 and 2021 and those messages were not captured — and therefore not included — in key public records requests about the protests, policing and other issues.
HuffPost

The Kentucky Open Government Coalition weighed in on a local university using the First Amendment as an excuse to deny an open records request. This stems off of testimony provided by former WKMS Station Manager Chad Lampe during the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission's hearings for former 42nd Circuit Court Judge Jamie Jameson. During Jameson's hearings, Lampe and Jameson both testified the judge contacted Murray State President Bob Jackson about an open records request filed by WKMS, Murray State's public radio affiliate, to obtain video of Jameson walking around the courthouse in his underwear. JCC charged Jameson with using his position as a judge in an effort to stop the story from running.
WPSD
 

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