Request for OCME records
| Submitted | Oct. 20, 2019 |
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Communications
From: T. McElwee
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:
All records of the OCME regarding the death and disposition of remains of Lewis A. Fidler, alias "Lew" as has been widely reported (see attachment for details).
To assist in the location of records through a search, Fidler's Date of Birth was May 27, 1956. He was found non-responsive on May 4, 2019 and brought by ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital where he was pronounced dead May 5, 2019.
"All records" includes all FOIL-covered records in this case including (where applicable and not exclusively) the OCME Clinical Summary Worksheet; HCF Face Sheet; EMS Patient Care Report / Ambulance Call Report; Discharge Summary and/or Admission records; History and Physical Examination; records of the Communications Department; records of the MedicoLegal Investigator; and all records concerning the OCME's transport, custody, and release of the body for burial.
This is not a request for a death certificate or autopsy report.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, 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 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
T. McElwee
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
Your request FOIL-2019-816-01003 has been successfully submitted to the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).
The details of your request are shown below.
Request Title: Request for OCME records
Request Description: To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:
All records of the OCME regarding the death and disposition of remains of Lewis A. Fidler, alias "Lew" as has been widely reported (see attachment for details).
To assist in the location of records through a search, Fidler's Date of Birth was May 27, 1956. He was found non-responsive on May 4, 2019 and brought by ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital where he was pronounced dead May 5, 2019.
"All records" includes all FOIL-covered records in this case including (where applicable and not exclusively) the OCME Clinical Summary Worksheet; HCF Face Sheet; EMS Patient Care Report / Ambulance Call Report; Discharge Summary and/or Admission records; History and Physical Examination; records of the Communications Department; records of the MedicoLegal Investigator; and all records concerning the OCME's transport, custody, and release of the body for burial.
This is not a request for a death certificate or autopsy report.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, 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 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
T. McElwee
Attachments:
Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://www.muckrock.com/
Attached File: Former20City20Councilman20Lew20Fidler20dead20at2062.pdf: Former20City20Councilman20Lew20Fidler20dead20at2062.pdf (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/response/742419?token=d44e76f4ccca4aea96c24da72e5ab2b9)
Requester's Contact Information
Name:
T. Mcelwee
Title:
Not provided
Organization:
Not provided
Email:
requests@muckrock.com (mailto:requests@muckrock.com)
Phone Number:
(617) 299-1832
Fax Number:
Not provided
Street Address (line 1):
411A Highland Ave
Street Address (line 2):
MuckRock News DEPT MR 81941
City:
Somerville
State:
MA
Zip Code:
02144
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
The NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has acknowledged your FOIL request FOIL-2019-816-01003. (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2019-816-01003)
You can expect a response on or about Wednesday, November 27, 2019.
Please visit FOIL-2019-816-01003 to view additional information and take any necessary action. (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2019-816-01003)
Request Information:
Request Title: Request for OCME records
Request Description: To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:
All records of the OCME regarding the death and disposition of remains of Lewis A. Fidler, alias "Lew" as has been widely reported (see attachment for details).
To assist in the location of records through a search, Fidler's Date of Birth was May 27, 1956. He was found non-responsive on May 4, 2019 and brought by ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital where he was pronounced dead May 5, 2019.
"All records" includes all FOIL-covered records in this case including (where applicable and not exclusively) the OCME Clinical Summary Worksheet; HCF Face Sheet; EMS Patient Care Report / Ambulance Call Report; Discharge Summary and/or Admission records; History and Physical Examination; records of the Communications Department; records of the MedicoLegal Investigator; and all records concerning the OCME's transport, custody, and release of the body for burial.
This is not a request for a death certificate or autopsy report.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, 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 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
T. McElwee
Attachments:
Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://www.muckrock.com/
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
The NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) has closed your FOIL request FOIL-2019-816-01003 for the following reasons: (https://a860-openrecords.nyc.gov/request/view/FOIL-2019-816-01003)
Please be advised that the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (“OCME”) does not release decedent records/autopsy reports pursuant to FOIL. Also be advised that any reports will not be made public pursuant to §87(2) (b) of the Freedom of Information Law; the disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
In addition, some of the documents requested are part of the Medical Examiner case file. Pursuant to New York State Public Officers Law, Article 6, Section 89(2), release of such records would result in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Further, pursuant to the New York City Charter Section 557(g), decedent records in homicide cases, if this is in fact a homicide, may not be disclosed without approval from the district attorney’s office.
If you wish to appeal this decision, you may do so within thirty (30) days of its receipt. You may appeal to: Leslie C. Kamelhar, Esq., FOIL Appeals Officer, Office of Chief Medical Examiner, 421 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10016.
Holly Serrette Records Access Officer
Request Information:
Request Title: Request for OCME records
Request Description: To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:
All records of the OCME regarding the death and disposition of remains of Lewis A. Fidler, alias "Lew" as has been widely reported (see attachment for details).
To assist in the location of records through a search, Fidler's Date of Birth was May 27, 1956. He was found non-responsive on May 4, 2019 and brought by ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital where he was pronounced dead May 5, 2019.
"All records" includes all FOIL-covered records in this case including (where applicable and not exclusively) the OCME Clinical Summary Worksheet; HCF Face Sheet; EMS Patient Care Report / Ambulance Call Report; Discharge Summary and/or Admission records; History and Physical Examination; records of the Communications Department; records of the MedicoLegal Investigator; and all records concerning the OCME's transport, custody, and release of the body for burial.
This is not a request for a death certificate or autopsy report.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, 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 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
T. McElwee
Attachments:
Upload documents directly: https://https://www.muckrock.comhttps://www.muckrock.com/
From: T. McElwee
I appeal on the following grounds:
• My request explicitly stated that this was *not* a request for autopsy or death certificate material. This point is both moot and gratuitous; OCME cannot reject a request that was never made.
• My request asked for commonly used forms of an intra or infra agency nature, that are used for "statistical or factual tabulations or data," for which there is an explicit carve out under NYS Public Officers Law, Article 6 §87 2(g)
• In the balancing act of public interest vs. privacy concerns (which, to be noted, concern the next of kin of the deceased and not the deceased himself), this is a matter where the OCME is more than capable of using basic redaction features in PDF sotware rather than make a blanket rejection. While certain medical information may indeed be privacy privileged, this does not make basic public domain information information (including location, date, and time of an EMS report) "private."
-TM
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following New York Freedom of Information Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 20, 2019. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Nov. 27, 2019. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner, New York
Good afternoon T. McElwee,
My FOIL Appeal Determination, contained in my letter to you dated December 17, 2019, was returned to me today by the US Postal Service, marked "return to sender/moved, left no address". This leads me to believe that my 2nd letter to you, dated December 23, 2019, will also be returned in the coming short time. Each of the letters was sent to the same address - 411A Highland Avenue, Somerville, NY 02144 - which you included within your FOIL correspondence to me.
As such, I have attached a copy of each of my two letters, referred to above. This re-sending of the letters does not re-start the time for you to challenge either determination; particularly as it appears you have made it impossible to respond to you by mail in response to your FOIL appeals which were received by mail.
Leslie Kamelhar
Leslie C. Kamelhar
Special Counsel, Litigation and Policy
Office of Chief Medical Examiner
421 East 26 Street -- Rm. 1316.D
New York, New York 10016
lkamelhar@ocme.nyc.gov<mailto:lkamelhar@ocme.nyc.gov>
Phone:212.323.1904
Fax: 212.323.1920
The information contained in this e-mail communication may be confidential and legally privileged and is for the use of the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient, or an authorized employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, the dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this communication or its contents (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone or reply e-mail and permanently delete it and any copies from your system files.
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