The Monroe Gazette 1, City of Newburgh 0
We went to court yesterday, and so far the results are looking good.
Pictured above: You can use the case index # (on the top right of the above image) to pull up the court documents if you’d like to read more. I’d link to the case directly, but NYSCEF (the New York State Court Electronic Filing System) just made a recent change that makes it harder to use. Not only can you not find the cases you’re looking for now, but you can’t link to those cases either.
I spent most of yesterday—Monday—in court. That’s because, a while back, I tried to obtain meeting minutes and agendas from the City of Newburgh’s Human Rights Commission and the Police Community Relations Board.
The City of Newburgh had not posted anything from those two boards, or their Board of Ethics, going back to the beginning of 2021.
So, we sued them. And we won.
But as it turns out, the City not only violated FOIL, it also violated the New York State Open Meetings Law (OML), which was the purpose of our court hearing on Monday.
My impression, based on the judge’s decision, is that the judge felt the city’s response to our FOIL request was lacking, and the violation of OML was so egregious that the unusual step of having a court date and even calling witnesses was warranted.
Something that doesn’t usually happen with an Article 78 proceeding.
The Freedom of Information Law in New York State is one of very few mechanisms people have to get any sort of accountability for their government’s actions. We take it seriously, and as mentioned, we plan to deploy it against every municipality in the form of a credit card audit until New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli finishes the now two-year-old audit of the Village of South Blooming Grove.
Documentation, as we just wrote, is how you kill fascism.
There’s another reason we’re interested in the City of Newburgh’s meeting minutes and agendas: Marcus Burks.
Marcus Burks was allegedly killed by the Newburgh Police Department. Just like George Floyd was in Minnesota.
Even the Attorney General, whom we’re not huge fans of because of her inaction in South Blooming Grove, is investigating the Burks killing.
I don’t know what I can do for residents of the City of Newburgh, given that I have no car and maybe have $300 to my name, but I do know that Marcus Burks is not the first inhabitant of the City of Newburgh who was allegedly killed by the Newburgh Police Department. I also know that factually he is not the first person they’ve abused, as we’re aware of at least one case where someone has been assaulted for asking too many questions about the department.
These incidents make those Human Rights Commission and Police Community Relations Board minutes and agendas over the last five years—since the murder of George Floyd—something of high interest to us. That’s why we took the steps that we did to sue for them.
It may be a while before we get them, but as we have additional information to share on this case or our continued investigation into the City of Newburgh’s Police Department, we will keep you posted.
For now, pardon the short post. I’m exhausted. The City of Newburgh’s lack of preparation for the case kept us at the courthouse from 10 a.m. to just before 3 p.m.