Case reports
Dear Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
Please provide, if available, any arrest reports, preliminary law enforcement incident reports, complaint warrants, complaint summonses, affidavits of probable cause, indictments, criminal information forms, plea forms, and sentencing information, pertaining to the following three defendants:
Philip Seidle (sentencing date: 9/29/16).
Liam McAtasney (sentencing year: 2019).
Ronald Teschner (Case # 19-03774).
Yours sincerely,
Resident
Dear Resident,
The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office is in receipt of the below request
for records. This email requests clarification needed to respond to the
request:
1.) Please explain what you mean by "criminal information forms." We are
unfamiliar with a record by that name.
2.) The request for "sentencing information" is not valid. As a general
matter, "OPRA only allows requests for records, not requests for
information." Bent v. Township of Stafford Police Dep't, 381 N.J. Super.
30, 37 (App. Div. 2005). "To qualify under OPRA then, the request must
reasonably identify a record and not generally data, information or
statistics." Ibid. The request for "sentencing information" does not
identify any record. If you want to pursue this part of your request,
please specify what record(s) you are seeking.
3.) We understand the request for "affidavits of probable cause" to refer
only to the document used to detail the probable cause basis for a
criminal complaint. Please confirm that this understanding is correct.
Your request for records is "made under OPRA and the common law right of
access." "[U]nlike a citizen's absolute statutory right of access [under
OPRA], a plaintiff's common-law right of access must be balanced against
the State's interest in preventing disclosure. The common law right of
access involves a two-step inquiry. First, a litigant must establish an
interest in the public record.... Once the first step has been satisfied,
then, to gain access, a plaintiff's interest in disclosure of the relevant
documents must outweigh the State's interest in non-disclosure."
Education Law Ctr v. New Jersey Dep’t of Educ., 198 N.J. 274, 302-03
(2009) (emphasis added).
The standard therefore makes clear that, to gain access under the common
law, you must first establish an interest in the requested record(s).
Your request does not do so. It does not even identify who you are, let
alone a legitimate interest in the records in any of the three criminal
cases that you identify. Unless you identify an interest in the requested
records, your common law claim to access fails. You are not required to
identify yourself or your interest to proceed under the OPRA statute.
Please be guided accordingly.
Thank you,
Mary Juliano
Assistant Prosecutor
Dear Ms. Juliano,
In regards to the three items of clarification:
Item # 1. Please remove from the request.
Item # 2. Please change Sentencing Information to this: Judgement of Conviction and Order for Commitment.
Item # 3: Yes, that is the document I am referring to.
Yours sincerely,
Resident
********EMAIL RESPONSE: 1 OF 3:
Attached please find records responsive to your request.
Driver's license, social security and phone numbers are redacted pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(a).
Arrest photo is redacted pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-9 and Executive Orders 9(e)(Hughes), 69 (Whitman), and 21 (McGreevey).
Our file does not contain an affidavit of probable cause or preliminary law enforcement report for Philip Seidle so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
Our file does not contain a plea agreement for Liam McAtasney so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
Our file does not contain a plea agreement or judgment of conviction for Ronald Teschner so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
********EMAIL RESPONSE: 2 OF 3:
Attached please find records responsive to your request.
Driver's license, social security and phone numbers are redacted pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(a).
Arrest photo is redacted pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-9 and Executive Orders 9(e)(Hughes), 69 (Whitman), and 21 (McGreevey).
Our file does not contain an affidavit of probable cause or preliminary law enforcement report for Philip Seidle so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
Our file does not contain a plea agreement for Liam McAtasney so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
Our file does not contain a plea agreement or judgment of conviction for Ronald Teschner so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
********EMAIL RESPONSE: 3 OF 3: a link with the attached file will follow this email.
Attached please find records responsive to your request.
Driver's license, social security and phone numbers are redacted pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(a).
Arrest photo is redacted pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-9 and Executive Orders 9(e)(Hughes), 69 (Whitman), and 21 (McGreevey).
Our file does not contain an affidavit of probable cause or preliminary law enforcement report for Philip Seidle so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
Our file does not contain a plea agreement for Liam McAtasney so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
Our file does not contain a plea agreement or judgment of conviction for Ronald Teschner so your request is being denied for lack of responsive records.
Addendum: please note, the records on the link will available for one week. If you are unable to access during that period, please advise and I will send another link.
Addendum: please note, the records on the link will available for one week. If you are unable to access during that period, please advise and I will send another link.
Dear Ms. Bycsek,
I was able to download the first two attachments. Your 3rd and final email mentioned a link to get the final documents, but there is no link included. Can you send the last batch of documents via PDF downloads as you did for the first two defendants. If not, please re-send the link you sent earlier, since none appeared in your OPRA Machine response.
Thank you,
Resident
Dear Resident,
I am sending this from the OPRA email because there was an issue with my email; sorry for the delay. It is unfortunate that you were unable to access the link which expired today. Instead of sending another link, I have divided the document into five portions, all of which shall come in a series of emails: 1 of 5; 2 of 5, etc. (total of five emails). They are in the order originally sent in the link. Please advise that you have received and are able to access the documents.
Dear Ms. Bycsek,
Thank you for re-sending the PDF links. I know sometimes there can be trouble with delivery. The links worked fine today and I was able to download all 5 attachments you sent.
Thank you for your time and assistance!
Yours sincerely,
Resident