Essam Attia arrest report

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York State Freedom of Information Law (1977 N.Y. Laws ch. 933), I hereby request the following records:

The arrest report for the arrest of Essam Attia in November 2012 for criminal possession of a forged instrument, grand larceny, possession of stolen property, and weapons possession.

I also request that, if appropriate, 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 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Shawn Musgrave

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 14, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2013-PL-7671.

Thank you for your help.

Jonathan David
Records Access Appeals Officer
New York City Police Department
One Police Plaza-Room1406
New York, NY 10038-1497

November 19, 2013

To Whom It May Concern:

This is an appeal for 2013-PL-7671, which was rejected via attached letter dated November 14, 2013.

Lieutenant Mantellino's grounds for rejecting this request are untenable. My request fo the arrest report of Essam Attia in November 2012 is not only a routine request but seeks records that are squarely within the realm of releasable records.

In 2005, the New York Committee on Open Government issued an advisory opinion in a nearly identical case (available here: http://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/f14554.htm). Just as in this case, NYPD FOIL rejected a request for arrest documents on the grounds that the documents "would interfere with law enforcement investigations or judicial proceedings."

In that advisory opinion, the Committee on Open Government referred NYPD to the finding in Gould that "a categorical denial of access to records is inconsistent with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Law." This is a similarly categorical denial without consideration for releasable portions of the document.

Please review this request and provide those portions of the requested documents that can be properly released under FOIL.

Thank you,

Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock