Forwarded chain letter email about Mike Brown in RTD email databases

To Whom It May Concern:

Please consider this a request pursuant to the Colorado Open Records Act.

In response to an earlier CORA request (reference # RTD-15-085) in which I requested records of RTD communications with DPD & the City of Denver regarding a December 2014 protest event, I received a copy of an email sent from jwilson1022@comcast.net on 12/16/2014 3:34:07 PM with subject "Fwd: Words of a dying black man (strong language)". This email appears to be a chain letter with a negative (many would say "racist" since the "n-word" is used 20 times) message about Mike Brown, the teen killed by police in Ferguson, MO last year. The "To" field in the email is blank, so it is not clear which RTD or city employee sent, received, or forwarded this message, although I assume since this email was included in records responsive to my CORA request # RTD-15-085 that it must have been forwarded, sent, or received by an employee of RTD, or an employee of the City of Denver.

I have uploaded a .pdf copy of the email here, which you may view in order to avoid any confusion about the nature of my request. You will notice the "TO" field of this email is blank, which seems unusual to me since the "TO" fields in every other email record I received in response to CORA request # RTD-15-085 were populated by one or more email addresses. The missing information in the "TO" field is why I am making this request.
http://www.docdroid.net/Ew4f59X/fwd-words-of-a-dying-black-man-strong-language.pdf.html

While I may be confused and/or mistaken, upon examining the record it seemed to me as if identifying information was left out of the copy of this email I received in response to my earlier CORA request # RTD-15-085 in order to protect the identity of an RTD or City of Denver employee who forwarded a chain email to coworkers that many people would consider to contain racist content (as I mentioned earlier, this email contains the "n-word" in 20 places).

Please understand this CORA request to be a specific request for the names and email addresses of anyone employed by RTD or the City of Denver who forwarded (or otherwise received and then sent on to others) this email from jwilson1022@comcast.net on 12/16/2014 3:34:07 PM with subject "Fwd: Words of a dying black man (strong language)". The scope of this request specifically includes the names and email addresses that would occupy the "TO" field of this email, which was either redacted or left blank in the copy of records which I received from CORA request # RTD-15-085. My understanding is that since this email from 12/16/2014 exists in RTD databases, this metadata information about the email address(es) that sent, received, or forwarded this email should be readily available, and can be easily retrieved and shared with me pursuant to this request and in legal compliance with the Colorado Open Records Act.

Who is responsible for this email ending up in RTD databases? This email must have been forwarded on from the original sender, since the original sender's email (which happens to be the only email address listed in my copy of this record) - jwilson1022@comcast.net - belongs to Jeannette Wilson, a Raytheon employee who resides in Henderson, Nevada. This chain email must have been forwarded to coworkers by an RTD or City of Denver employee in order for it to end up in records responsive to my CORA request # RTD-15-085. Again, please understand this CORA request to specifically include any email addresses associated with the travel of this email to & from RTD email addresses (or email databases belonging to RTD) that was not included in the copy of this email included in records responsive to CORA request # RTD-15-085.

If name & email address information was redacted in records responsive to CORA request #RTD-15-085 and will continue to be redacted in response to today's subsequent request, please provide a written explanation of the legal authority which allows for this specific redaction of public records information by the records custodian.

If you deny this request for records in whole or in part, I ask that you provide a written statement explaining the reason for the denial that cites the legal authority that is the basis for the denial. If any of the requested records are in active use, in storage or otherwise unavailable at this time, I likewise request that you provide a statement informing me of the reason they are currently unavailable and a date and hour at which time the records will be available for inspection.

I also request that fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Christopher Schiano

Hello,

I would like to follow up on this open records request, filed on October 15, 2015. The statute does require a response to my request to be given within 3 business days. It is currently 10:12 am on August 21, 2015, and I have received no response to my request as of this writing.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request as the statute requires.

sincerely,
Christopher Schiano

Hi, please excuse my mistake. The current date is October 20, 2015. My understanding is a response would have been due yesterday. Thank you

Thanks for the response Tina