According to a recent Public Access Counselor opinion, the Marion County Sheriff's Office denied a request by Fox 59 News' Russ McQuaid to access the off-duty work permits issued to Lt. Tim Motsinger and Major Lincoln Plowman. The Sheriff's Office contends the off-duty work permits are part of the employees' personnel files and protected from public disclosure. The Public Access Counselor ruled in his opinion that the Sheriff's Office had failed to meet its burden of showing that the records in question fell within the exemption for personnel records.
Motsinger is a former candidate for Marion Co. Sheriff who dropped his bid after it was disclosed that his campaign had accepted $200,000 from alleged Ponzi scheme operator Tim Durham. Plowman is a former City-County Councilor who recently resigned after it became publicly known that he was the subject of an FBI sting operation. McQuaid is obviously interested in learning the identity of Motsinger's and Plowman's off-duty work employer to see how it might related to ongoing investigations. Motsinger and Plowman worked for the sheriff prior to the merger of IMPD and the Sheriff's Office.
11 comments:
So, has he tried to get their off-duty employment records from IMPD? They had to file there after the "CONsolidation."
Why would he go to the sheriff? The sheriff is not the custodian of police records. He was stripped of all authority over police some time ago.
You do mean that Motsinger accepted $200,000 in campaign donations from Durham, correct?
I am confused. How is Motsinger tied up in this investigation?
Why is no one checking campain donations from Securatex to these two. Cottey and crew have every security contract the City has issued. Strange no one else can get one.
I think we are all missing the point here. Yes the sheriff has no control of IMPD, but perhaps Russ is looking to see how long they have been connected with Durham as an example were they working for him in 2001.
The interesting thing is what does the Sheriff have to hide? Perhaps there is more to this story then we see on the surface. If he had nothing to hide, then why not release the records. Perhaps a nerve has been struck by the press, and it is about time in my opinion.
Someone needs to ask how Sheriff Anderson is paying a private attorney to represent him on this matter.
Sheriff Anderson has dipped into the commissary fund to the tune of $4 million to pay Keviin Murray and his law firm, even though the law doesn't allow for that expenditure from the fund.
Motsinger is very close to Jack Cottey and may have been doing work for Securatex as well.
It seems a law suit would result in a court order to produce under the open records law.
Paul Ogden: Kevin certainly hit the jackpot when Frank was elected. That arrangement has seemed problematic to me for sometime.
personell files are still in the hands of the agency that created them. DIsclosing personal files without a court order would not protect the sheriff from a invasion of privacy civil suit.
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