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Teenager Wins Email Suit Against City of Kokomo
An anonymous reader writes "Recently, a 16 year old sued the city of Kokomo, Indiana for access to an email list that he suspected the mayor was mis-using for political purposes. Despite the mayor's refusal to give in, the teenager won the case. The city will have to pay not only for the expensive attorneys they hired, but may have to compensate the 16 year old's pro-bono counsel."
Much worse misusing of lists has occurred in Indiana. Before the national "do not call list" was implemented Indiana had one. Charitable organizations did not have to oblige by this list. But the FOP took it one step further, adding all the names on the "do not call list" to their call list. This undoubtedly led to them getting more than a few unlisted numbers in the process.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
In this case its more like a bet. If he lost, he got nothing. The boy wouldn't have to pay, no money gained. But if he won, all the lawyers expensives (paralegals, all those billable hours/minutes/seconds) get a value assigned to them, and under the rules of the law, can be paid by the city, which lost. I think.
Kokomo.. didn't the Eagles sing something about that.. or was that somewhere in hawaii?
The losing side compensating the winner's pro bono counsel is not an oxymoron. The city's residents, as loser of the lawsuit, now get to pay the kid's lawyer. It doesn't matter that the lawyer wasn't expecting the kid to pay him. What was pro bono to the kid is now an expense to the city. I really hate these cases; the city residents should not be the ones who pay, the mayor should be the one who pays. In actuality it could be the city's insurance company who pays, for now.
It was the Beach Boys. From the soundtrack for the 1988 movie "Cocktail", starring Tom Cruise.
To anyone who lives in or near Kokomo, this type of continuance in the face of facts is not surprising. I suspect the mayor had hoped the kid would give up.
His loss is a community loss in tax dollars, which, when considering that Delphi Automotive, one of the city's two largest corporations is in bankruptcy is quite irresponsible.
First off, please don't /. my local newspaper. Secondly this is only one of Matt McKillip's blunders. He has commented how he thinks divorce should be illegal in the city of Kokomo, had a "prayer chapel" installed in a Redi-Med type medical center to prevent a bar from being turned into a strip club, given top jobs to campaign contibutors, changed traditionally public meetings to invite only, etc ...
Really, he is the worst mayor we have had here for quite a while. Delphi and Chrysler, Kokomo's top employers have both recently laid off people. Kokomo is on a downfall and MAtt McKillip isn't helping it.
"City officials turned down Nees, saying the teen could come in and hand-copy the list. Officials said giving out copies of address lists would leave the newsletter subscribers open to spam and computer viruses."
I know it would've been a major pain to hand copy, but if this was a real effort by the teen to research and uncover abuse, why not just copy them down? I mean this has taken over a year now. He could have hand copied them and been done with it long before now.
"Murray said the law, which restricts access to mailing addresses, doesn't extend to e-mail addresses..."
This tells me that the City wasn't asking the teen to hand copy the addresses just to be jerks about it. They were applying an existing law for mailing addresses to email addresses. Seems reasonable to me.
"Groth took the case on a pro-bono basis, but Murray asked for an accounting of Groth's fees in her ruling. Groth said Tuesday it's likely he could bill several thousand dollars for the case."
Before we attack the bloodsucking lawyer, the compensation for the pro-bono part of this was the judges idea. This goes to show that we probably need some way of reeling in some of these justices. I mean, it's one thing if she wants to pay this lawyer out of her pocket, but she just imposed a huge bill on the tax payers of that city to pay someone who was fine doing this for free (free meaning the publicity).
Do what is right and let the consequence follow
ahem, beach boys
The reason the kid tried to get the email list is that he was subscribed to the list and got political solicitations from the mayor. When the list was just supposed to be a "what is going on in Kokomo" type list
There is new legislation being worked on to make the ruling void anyways.
below is grabbed from http://www.indianacog.org/ (first place I could find the bill listing)
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SB 205 (see more information on this page) passed out of the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee with a 9-1 vote and is eligible for second reading amendments in the House. Should it pass, Nees' successful ruling will be a moot point. Legislators will have made secret the e-mail lists compiled by public officials.
Aren't all lawyers required to do x/y cases pro bono as part of their liscence?
Not that this guy maybe didn't do it purely out of the goodness of his heart anyway, I just think the idea is sweetly nostalgic.
You're wrong.
"As I understand it, FOIA requests..."
apply to FEDERAL government, not state and local.
There are laws that apply locally as well, but they obviously vary from state to state.
From wiki
"United States
Main article: Freedom of information in the United States
In the United States the Freedom of Information Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966 and went into effect the following year. The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments were signed by President Bill Clinton on October 2, 1996.
The Act applies only to federal agencies. However, all of the states, as well as the District of Columbia and some territories, have enacted similar statutes to require disclosures by agencies of the state and of local governments, though some are significantly broader than others. Many combine this with Open Meetings legislation, which requires government meetings to be held publicly."
Once again I have stymied ignorance. You're welcome.
How pathetic are you that you follow me from topic to topic and waste all your mod points at once modding me down?
actually, it's "pro bono publico"-- since the adjective (publico) modifies the object (bono) of the preposition (pro), it must agree in case (in this case, ablative).
I might not know a lick about C syntax, but I can certainly remember my Latin....
lol, try "Fraternal Order of Police".
And as a previous poster alluded to, having a FOP sticker on your car pretty much makes you immune to minor traffic violations. At least that's the myth in Indiana......
This isn't the first round between McKillip and Nees. Nees had previously created a documentary film about McKillip entitled Words of Sedition: how the highest levels of power shut down free speech in Kokomo.
You can find more info on this case from when it was filed in this Indianapolis Star article.
You can also read more about it on Nees' personal website.
You can watch Words of Sedition online as well.
I am sure we have not heard the last of this. It would not surprise me that the mayor would use the city mailing list for personal political gain, and once Ryan has the list in hand, I'm sure he will not be hesitant about making public his findings.
Check out his website for more details about this case, as well as his movie about this administration's other questionable practices. Quite impressive collection, especially for a 16 year old. Reminds me of a young Alex Jones.
Public use of any portable music system is a virtually guaranteed indicator of sociopathic tendencies. -- Zoso
Kokomo.. didn't the Eagles sing something about that.. or was that somewhere in hawaii?
I think that was the Beach Boys. Although I think you're refering to Cocomug, which some of them might be sipping right now in their retirement home.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
"Kokomo.. didn't the Eagles sing something about that.. or was that somewhere in hawaii?" Actually it was the Beach Boys that sang the song Kokomo. It is an island in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It is actually owned by Sandals Royal Caribbean.
Since we're already off-topic, how do you figure this? Most people I know tithe once a month. You've usually got different ushers passing around the collection plate, so why in the world would somebody give you dirty looks if you've only got a one in four chance of putting anything in the pot per month anyway? I've been an usher, and I tend to avoid looking at people so that they *don't* think that I'm implying anything by my runaway facial expressions.
But... this is relevant, because... er... oh! Yeah, I've been to a... church in Kokomo. They didn't frown their either when I passed the collection plate by without putting anything in.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Yeah. For example, my high school did away with the cafeteria staff and started to bring in lunches from local establishments (McDonald's, Subway, some local italian places Alumni owned, that sort of thing) and they set two flat rates. On "A" days it would be $3 and on "B" it would be $4. This included a sandwich of your choice and a bag of chips. This is how it worked out:
You order a plain Double Cheeseburger for lunch. You get your burger, grab a bag of chips from a Sam's club box, and pay $3 for it.
Some simple math here:
Double cheeseburger $1
Bag of Chips $3.99/24 (at the local grocery store, not Sam's club)
So how does this come out to $3? The school claims that McDonald's was charing them more for the large order. Wait a second, has anyone else heard of large orders INCREASING the price? It was my understanding that ordering in bulk made it cheaper. After that excuse was diffused it became a delivery charge. So, McDonald's is getting better than $1.50 over retail PER SANDWICH for about 250 sandwiches? I was arguing about that when I graduated, but last I heard, the program was still in place.
Either McDonald's closed one hell of a deal with my school (and that would mean somebody is getting a kickback off of that) or my school is taking in about $375+ a day in pure profit. The other days of the week were similar ripoffs.
Go go private catholic high schools.