MSU Police Report Released for Corley, King and Vance
The Detroit News reports that the MSU Police Dept. has released their police report regarding the alleged King, Corley and Vance sexual assault. It's over 200 pages long, and toner sales have skyrocketed in E. Lansing based on the comic amount of redaction in the report.
The report is linked in the DetNews article. One interesting tidbit I noted is that iPhones and iPads were collected - leading me to wonder if part of the delay in bringing charges was due to difficulty in de-encrypting those.
Anyway, while nothing to celebrate, this is of interest to the board and posted in that light. Here's to justice being served, however that manifests itself.
Note - I've had an itchy trigger finger on some news reports, but searched the site with multiple search term combinations, saw nothing on this, so posted.
I'm just not going to read 200 pages of police report. But I would appreciate it if someone else would and then notify me about anything explosive they may find. Thanks in advance...
Agreed
the police found that [Redacted].
_________King__________Corley___________Vance
_______Shoes
Nike Jacket ___________
iPad________
Sorry, not joking around about this as this gal's life is ruined. Not sure what happened but it seems like King was the main aggressor and Corley and Vance each made one bad decision that cost them their lives in society.
not particularly interested in the details, but I have no idea why the police report would be redacted to that extent. I have looked at hundreds of police reports, many obtained via FOIA, and I have never seen anything like that before.
I'm guessing that MSU's office of counsel advised whoever did the redactions to "err on the side of caution", and that the lawyer who did this went stupidly overboard. If the DetNews wants to, it can pursue this in the courts - we'll see, since newspapers are currently cash-strapped.
Put another way, the person who did the redaction is either a simpleton or is acting in bad faith, gambling that the DetNews won't throw resources at getting a good faith disclosure. It reeks of obstructionism, and is noteworthy that MSU still doesn't believe much in sunshine.
The standard for withholding, per the FOIA website, is:
The FOIA provides that when processing requests, agencies should withhold information only if they reasonably foresee that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption, or if disclosure is prohibited by law. Agencies should also consider whether partial disclosure of information is possible whenever they determine that full disclosure is not possible and they should take reasonable steps to segregate and release nonexempt information. The Office of Information Policy at the Department of Justice is responsible for issuing government-wide guidance on the FOIA as part of its responsibilities to encourage all agencies to fully comply with both the letter and the spirit of the FOIA.
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:25 AM ^
August 3rd, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^
Matt Charboneau wrote the article. He's not going to dig deep into the report.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
Ugh, Charboneau is a shameless homer. Picks MSU to win pretty much every game. Never writes anything remotely critical. Total hack.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:26 PM ^
There was no analysis of the report. Just "it was released...redactions...players removed from the program..."
His next article will continue with the "Spartans Have a NEW ATTITUDE in 2017" theme.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
you don't have to dig deep to hit shit
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:36 AM ^
Not to be pedantic, but FOIA only pertains to federal government. The guiding principle here is the Michigan public records law.,
August 3rd, 2017 at 11:18 AM ^
For pedantry. #michigandifference
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:27 PM ^
it is a michigan law and it starts like this:
AN ACT to provide for public access to certain public records of public bodies; to permit certain fees; to prescribe the powers and duties of certain public officers and public bodies; to provide remedies and penalties; and to repeal certain acts and parts of acts.
In the spirit of Miami (NTM/YTM) i suggest we refer to it as FOIA (NTFOIA)
Yes! Heh, heh.
original quote: but FOIA only pertains to federal government
i cite the michigan act, amazingly called the 'Freedom of Information Act' , aka, FOIA, and someone disagrees with that, or maybe it was in response to a different post?
The federal FOIA is better-known than the Michigan FOIA. So yrael22 was saying that it would make sense to refer to the Michigan FOIA as "Not that FOIA." In the same way that football discussions here refer to Miami University (in Ohio) as "Not that Miami" because University of Miami (in Florida) is better-known in the football world. Long explanation for a short-but-funny point.
Michigan has its own version of FOIA, with its own set of exemptions from disclosure: http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(xoydx512e2l4zydxmnbbhd4n))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-15-243
The paragraph you quoted appears to be from the federal FOIA website. The statutory provision for withholding informatlon under Michigan's FOIA is here: http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(xoydx512e2l4zydxmnbbhd4n))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-15-243 Which is quoted on p. 3-6 of a pamphlet from the state AG: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/ag/FOIA_Pamphlet_380084_7.pdf
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:08 AM ^
Memory has been subject to a ton of research, part of which tells us that memory is a "system process" that helps us understand our present and is easily influenced and changed, often unintentionally, by outside influences, i.e. Contamination. As such, we don't even know it's occurring -- source confusion -- so we may personally "believe" something, but it maybe something we integrated from somewhere else.
I'm frankly surprised there was not a bigger battle over release at all. I'm also not surprised by severe redaction at this stage.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:54 PM ^
Not familiar with Michigan law, but I handle a lot of public records requests in criminal cases in Ohio. This is spot on. Post-trial there are very few redactions, but pre-trial releases are heavily redacted to protect the accused, the victim and the integrity of the judicial process. This is especially true in cases involving sex offenses and lots of media attention, which are both present here.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^
I would imagine FERPA rules. Just like in the USC kicker case where the school said waive your rights and we will tell everyone what we found.
As I noted in the OP, this is comically redacted. I know the FOIA regulations decently well, and this is far from a "good faith" redaction. The one person who doesn't benefit much from the redactions, though, is Curtis Blackwell.
For those curious, you can get a download of his interview at pages 98-99 of the report. But the really interesting stuff is at Page 158. An unnamed person (I believe a coach) is being interviewed about Blackwell. This witness states "Curtis is the one staff member who he would question his integrity". The witness is further asked if any relationships Blackwell had with recruits or families was inappropriate, and the witness responded "(Blackwell) works those avenues".
There are also some reports that Blackwell was communicating directly with a parent of a player involved in the incident, asking Blackwell to look into it. It looks just like what we've heard - Blackwell was "protecting" his players while ignoring the victim.
All of which is a bad look for Blackwell, but also interesting that the person at MSU's law firm (or office of counsel) who redacted 95% of the substance of the report saw fit to let these disparagements of Blackwell sail through to the Detroit News.
Blackwell is the fall guy. There was some backlash to making him the fall guy, so they had to do what they could to make sure everyone believes getting rid of him makes everything alright.
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:01 AM ^
The apparent fall guy approach could blow up on them.
Painting Blackwell as someone who has a history of questionable/inappropriate actions establishes that the coaches knew (or should have known) that Blackwell was doing questionable/inappropriate things. This also isn't a booster or someone outside the program - Blackwell's coaching position makes him an agent of MSU and MSU football.
If you have prior knowledge that your employee makes bad/questionable/inappropriate decisions and you don't take corrective action, then you're on the hook when that employee does something worse.
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
These are good points, but it's an even worse strategy than that. First, Blackwell was fired (technically his contract wasn't renewed) and is indeed a fall guy here. There's little wisdom in putting out embarrassing info regarding him while redacting everything else (in clear defiance of the letter and spirit of FOIA). It sends a "we're aggressively protecting everyone but Blackwell" message, which would be useful in a wrongful discharge context.
Second, the disclosure that the a coach (I think it was a coach) had knowledge of shady dealings should be imputed to MSU as a whole. While the NCAA is generally a toothless beast, should allegations of recruiting violations crop up, it's a lot more damning to have a shady dealer in your program than an Ed Martin type (OwenGoBlue makes a similar point). So it's not only a looking forward issue, it's pretty damning evidence looking backward.
Michigan learned a bitter lesson through Ed Martin that there's no profit it turning a blind eye to impropriety. It takes it to another level when the vector of impropriety is a member of the football staff. While I take no pleasure in the Vance/King/Corley incident, I would love to see the Curtis Blackwell hire blow up in MSU's face.
In any event, the redaction of nearly all substance but Blackwell-related material seems like a rookie move. It makes MSU look like they are sunshine averse, and it makes it clear they are hanging Blackwell out to dry.
August 3rd, 2017 at 11:06 AM ^
Hail to the Vectors!
perhaps those Blackwell comments would get redacted if he had any pending charges.
They also seem to fall short of what would prompt an NCAA investigation. At best, they're vaguely incriminating. They do provide a hook for investigative journalists, but who cares enough about MSU to commission that story?
In leaving the Blackwell material but redacting the rest, MSU is inviting interested parties to fill in the blanks and they will do so with the assumption that the redacted material is similar in nature to the Blackwell bits.
Appreciate the perspective you bring to this board. I'm not a lawyer (I suspect you are), but I often work with legal teams and wish more of the attorneys I encounter were as concise and clever as your comments here.
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^
That is just amazing, and infuriating. I really, really hope that MSU gets exactly what they deserve, sooner than later. They do nothing in "good faith" at all. Fuck them.
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^
On a related note, I read the other day that MSU's O-line is trying to build unity and comraderie by all growing Fu Manchu beard/mustaches (http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2017/08/michigan_state_offensiv…). Because, after all, there is nothing makes a football program shed its creepy-male-sex-offender image faster than when they all grow Fu Manchus...
August 3rd, 2017 at 11:04 AM ^
Reminds me of when they trotted out the Steeler's throwbacks with the jail stripes - a poor fashion choice for Ben Roethlisberger, what with the rape allegations and whatnot. Never go full Roethlisberger.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:48 PM ^
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
so little time
August 3rd, 2017 at 10:39 AM ^
What % of content within the 226 pages is even readable? I tried breezing through this shit quickly and gave up within ten seconds. Black lines everywhere.
August 3rd, 2017 at 11:19 AM ^
Only 3%-9% readable.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^
well done. just simply does not get old to me.
August 3rd, 2017 at 12:49 PM ^
Man, there are at least 23-32 redactions in here.......
A video is probably on one of those devices. A lot of filmmakers these days.
I believe I will wait until somebody scans it and is selling an electronic version.
Signed,
A.T. Tappmann
Chaplain
U.S. Army
On a somewhat related note, Keith Appling was sentenced today to one-year in jail and 5 years probation on weapons and resisting and obstructing charges.