Jodie Cooper case file

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Tampa Bay Office

10460 Roosevelt Blvd

#282

St. Petersburg, FL 337161-800-473-5097 ext 5

Fax: 305-675-0926

Franck C. Fowler, County Attorneyfor Shelby County, Alabama

P.O. Box 587

Columbiana, Alabama 35051

April 26th, 2012

Mr. Ellis,

I am writing you in response to your letter, dated April 19th, 2012; which was in response to my request for

records to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office.

I would like to start this letter off by stating that, in my years of experience as an investigative journalist and asa case manager with the Police Complaint Center, I have had several opportunities to go through the process of

requesting records with various police agencies throughout the State of Alabama. And so far, none of them have made it

as difficult to gain access to records, as the Shelby County Sheriff's Office has. In general, our dealings with other

Alabama police agencies have resulted in a timely release of the records being requested, without any resistance ordelay. However, as you know, our dealings with Shelby County have been quite the opposite. It seems as though, there

is little to no effort being put forth to make these records available. However, there does seem to be a great deal of time

and effort being used, at the taxpayer's expense, to give reasons why my request is too burdensome on the Sheriff's

Office.

In your letter, you attempt justify the Sheriff's Office's lack of effort in making these records available, by

referencing a ruling made in a case involving Richard C. Gill.Ex Parte Gill 841 So. 2D 1231. I am familiar with the

Gill case and am aware that a ruling was made, denying his requests for records, on the basis that it would be

burdensome on the custodian of records. However, if I recall, that ruling was made on the grounds that Gill was notspecific in identifying the items he was requesting which put the burden on the records custodian to, not only locate

the records, but to also identify the records Gill was referring to.

The denial of Gill's request was also upheld, in part, due to his failure to submit a payment for the requested

records leaving the burden on clerk's office to cover the cost for copying and postage expenses.

(Taken from the Court's ruling in the Gill case)

"Gill never asserts that he, nor any of his agents,

has ever made arrangements to pay the fees set forth...Gill's allegations concern the trial court's unwillingness

to reproduce documents at the court's expenses...

As you can see from my records request, none of the burdens described in the Gill case, are being imposed on

the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. Unlike Robert Gill's request to the Clerk's office, I was very specific in what I was

looking for and also made it very clear in my request, that I was more than willing to pay for any costs associated with

the producing of these records. With that being said, I feel that my office's attempts to obtain records, should be dealt

with in accordance to Section 36-12-41 of the Alabama Statutes, rather than relying on the the Gill case; which has an

entirely different set of circumstances.

The truth in the matter, is that, the Sheriff's Office is very well aware of the incident I'm looking into and

undoubtedly, has very easy access to the associated records. In fact, members of the Sheriff's Office have previously

advised our clients, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, that they have already accessed and reviewed this information. If that's true


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and the Sheriff's Office has, in fact, reviewed the evidence related to Mrs. Cooper's case, then I fail to see how it would

impose a burden on them to simply produce those same files. Although, If there are items that I have requested that are

exempt from public inspection, then I will have no other choice to respect that. However, nothing in your letter

indicated any such exemptions. Instead, your letter seems to suggest that our client should simply walk into the Sheriff's

Office, equipped with her own copy machine and start sifting through department records on her own. If that is in fact

what you're suggesting, then I'd be more than willing to make that happen. However, if that's what needs to happen togain access to these records, I must advise you that our client will be accompanied by one of our staff members, as well

as a news crew.

To avoid that, I am willing to take whatever steps that are necessary to resolve this issue and make the processas burdenless as possible. If it satisfies the Sheriff's Office, I'd even be willing send them blank paper and CD's to copy

the records onto, along with an ink cartridge for their printer and self addressed stamped envelope to mail them in.

On another note, Mrs. Cooper's allegations against the Sheriff's Office are, as you know, of a very serious

nature and even though they claim that their officer acted appropriately, I can assure that Mrs. Cooper's attempts to get

answers will not cease. With that being said, if the Sheriff's Office still stands behind their decision in this matter, it

would only seem reasonable that they would refrain from risking major public criticism, and simply release the video

and other evidence, that they're alleging disproves Mrs. Cooper's claims.

In conclusion, I am requesting that you respond to letter within 5 business days, and that you advise on how the

Sheriff's Office wishes to proceed. Should any of the items I've requested by except from public record, then I ask that

you respond by pointing to the specific statutes, upon which you rely. However, if the requested records are publiclyavailable, then I ask that we make specific arrangements to have these records produced. If it is still your stance, that it

would be too burdensome for the Sheriffs Office to make copies of files they've already accessed and mail them out (atmy expense), then it is requested that a time be set up for Mrs. Cooper to go into the Sheriff's Office and access the

items in question.

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Joshua Antonelli

[email protected]

cc

Shelby County Sheriff's Office
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Jodie Cooper case file

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Transcript of Jodie Cooper case file